Living Stone
by Mrs. Tara Cullen
Summary: The second part of my adaptation of The Twilight Saga from Edward's perspective. Living Stone is the equivalent of Eclipse. If you haven't read Moonless Night, I suggest reading that first as this story will make reference to it. Happy Reading!
1. Author

January 16th 2010,

Hello everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR! I've been working on this chapter for seriously MONTHS! I don't know why it was so hard for me. Anyway, I'm about done with chapter two, it's flowing a lot easier now. If you didn't read Moonless Night which is New Moon from Edward's perspective, I suggest reading that first as this will make a lot of references to it. If you have already read Moonless Night welcome back and thank you for your on going support. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I will.

Looking so forward to your reviews, they so do help with the writing process!

Xoxo

Tara

January 17th 2010,

Hello again. Hope you enjoyed chapter one, here's chapter two with 3 very close to being finished. Let me know what you think.

Can't wait for your reviews.

Xoxo

Tara

January 18th, 2010,

Here's chapter three, one of my favorite chapters in the book because of the very last part. School starts again tomorrow, so I don't know if' I'll be updating everyday but I promise I will AT LEAST have one new chapter for you this 't wait for you reviews.

Xoxo

Tara

February 06, 2010,

Okay, I'm a terrible person.. but I seriously have NO TIME and zero motivation for this. Leave me some reviews so that I know that you're reading and have some reason to continue. I'll be better, I promise. Oh, here's chapter 4 btw. Lol

xoxo

Tara (PLEASE REVIEW!)

February 23rd, 2010,

Hello, all. Here's chapter 5. I was kind of surprised by how sexual it came out... not explicit or anything just very sexually tense. So I hope you enjoy.

Looking forward to your reviews.

Xoxo

Tara

April 2nd, 2010

Hello. I have changed some minor things in Chapter 5. Here's Chapter 6. I hope you love it. Keep those reviews coming!

Xoxo

Tara

April 17th, 2010

Hello! I'm sorry it's taken me this long to update... I don't know where time is going! Chapter 7 is up and running, please leave me some reviews and tell me what you think!

Review Review Review!

Xoxo

Tara

July 8th, 2010

Summer is so busy! Chapter 8 is ready for you. Hope you enjoy it, let me know in your reviews!

xoxo

Tara


	2. Chapter 1 Ultimatum

Chapter 1

"I'll come work with you at the hospital where ever we go next!"

"No."

"I'll start research on a cure for any disease, your choice!"

"No."

"I'll be Esme's slave for the next 1000 years and start work on the gazebo!"

"Edward..." Carlisle was showing the first signs of faltering. It was kind of ironic that to save Bella's soul, I was actioning off mine to Carlisle.

"Edward, I made Bella a promise. I'm turning her after graduation, it really is the best choice we have. What with the Volturi and Victoria, Bella's at too much risk staying human."

"She isn't in any danger." I said harshly. "I would never let anything happen to her."

"You can't stop the world, Edward. No matter how hard you try."

I growled and stomped from the room. Alice was sitting on the couch in the living room and I plopped down next to her.

"Any luck?" She asked, not looking up from her Cosmopolitan magazine.

"No." I said, though I knew she knew that already. She'd spent the last week telling me to stop trying to convince Carlisle to change his mind, it wasn't going to work. Bella was going to be a vampire before next fall.

"I don't know why you're even bothering with Carlisle." She said. "It's going to be you."

"Not if Bella doesn't marry me." I said sternly.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Oh please." She said. "You would never make Bella do anything she didn't want to."

"That's not true, I made her go to Calculus yesterday."

Alice laughed. "Skipping class is hardly the same thing as marriage, Edward."

"You really don't see her coming around?" I asked.

"No." She said with a sigh. "But I think she's probably trying to avoid that decision."

"Figures."

"Why don't you just do it already? You know she loves you, what will her marrying you prove anyway?"

"It won't prove anything." I admitted

"Then do it!" Alice said exasperatedly.

"It won't prove anything, but that doesn't mean that I don't want it. I _want_ Bella to be my wife, Alice. I'm not trying to trick her or buy more time. I just want to know that Bella belongs to me. That she's changing for me. And it will be like that for eternity.

"Are you that thick?" Alice said with a laugh. "Of course she wants you! I guess you wouldn't know what she's like when she's not around you but she gets all... quiet and is always looking at the window like she's... waiting for you. The girl's head over heels Edward."

"Then she shouldn't mind becoming my wife." I said.

"You know that it's not being YOUR wife that's stopping her, she just doesn't want to be married."

"Which means you'll never get to plan our wedding." I said smiling. I knew the reaction this would have on Alice, even without being able to read her mind.

Her smug smile turned downward into a frown. Her eyebrows set in a hard line and her eyes grew slightly darker.

"You're right." She conceded. "Something must be done."

I laughed. "What then?" I asked. "You're a girl, what could I do to convince her?" I saw the thoughts racing through her mind. The romantic proposals, whisking her away and to some exotic place where a surprise wedding was waiting. Alice operated under the illusion that Bella would melt if she could only see the beautiful ceremony that she would create for her. She didn't know Bella the way I did. If I was going to get Bella to marry me, it would probably be out of the window of my Volvo parked next to a drive up chapel.

As Alice ran through her proposal plans, each more unlikely to convince Bella then the next, Emmett came into the room and sighed.

"I'm bored." He said sullenly, staring at the TV.

"Where's Rosalie?" I asked.

"Under her car, she says its making a weird humming sound but I think it's just because hasn't worked on it all week."

I nodded, glancing up at the clock.

4:45.

I wouldn't see Bella for another two hours and 15 minutes. One second ticked by.

"Wanna go outside?" Emmett asked turning to me and grinning.

I shook my head and Emmett collapsed further into his chair and grumbled.

"Esme's going hunting with Carlisle in about 45 minutes." Alice said. "I bet Jasper would go out with you."

"Excellent!" Emmett exclaimed, immediately bolting to his feet. He went up the stairs, imagining the fight that was about to take place. I tried not to laugh as I saw his fantasy of holding Jasper to the ground as he begged to be let free. I doubted Jasper would lose, let alone beg.

Alice threw her magazine aside and picked up a Vogue. I watched the clock tick 318 more seconds away.

"This would be perfect on Bella!" Alice exclaimed.

"What would?" I said. Her mind had shifted to something else. She was obviously trying to keep whatever designer dress she saw on the page from me. I couldn't imagine why she would hide an outfit from me, it made me curious.

"It's nothing." She said hastily shoving the magazine aside. She thought the name Perrine Bruyere three times as she pushed the magazine deep in to the cushions of the couch. I caught a glimpse of the cover. A blonde model with red lipstick and a white veil. It was a wedding issue.

I smiled slightly as I thought about Bella in the place of the model. Her face hidden behind a frail veil of lace. Her lips painted red and curled up into a wide smile, blushing that perfect color of pink as she walked down the isle towards me. My chest swelled, I wanted this future so badly.

The news started on the television. I looked up, hoping to distract myself and was actually surprised when I was. The newscaster was talking about several mysterious murders in Seattle. Alice shifted in the chair as she too focused on the descriptions of the homicides.

_"Not another one." _Alice thought.

We listened as they described the bodies found at the scene of the crime.

_"Newborn?" _She thought.

I nodded my head. It fit the description perfectly. It had to be, any more than one body had to mean a newborn. Only a careless vampire would leave evidence of a kill, and as we were very careful not to be careless under the watch of the Volturi, a body was rare find. And there were five now.

_"But who created it?" _She wondered. _"The closest people around us are the Denali. You don't think?!" _Her thoughts were suddenly panicked.

I shook my head.

_"We should let Carlisle know..." _

"The mail is here." Esme said, walking in the front door from the garden. I looked up and noticed an unusually large stack of envelopes in her arms. We normally didn't get much paper mail. Our bills were paid Online and none of our friends bothered with the postal service.

_"College acceptance letters." _Alice thought.

Ah! I'd been so busy helping Bella fill out her applications, I'd completely forgotten about my own. I got up with Alice and followed her into the kitchen.

Rosalie was standing at the sink, rubbing her hands with icy blue dish soap. The water that ran off of her rose petal white skin was black, though there was no sign of grease or oil anywhere else on her body. Not her skin or hair or even her clothes. She picked up a towel and wiped the water from her hands and watched Esme move with the handful of letters.

Alice bounced a little in front of the counter as Esme sorted our letters into piles by names. I looked down at my pile.

Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Berkley, Stanford, Syracuse, Princeton, Brown... I came to a plain white envelope that stood out in color and thickness from the Ivy League acceptance letters. The University of Alaska Southeast. I opened it.

Dear Mr. Edward Cullen,

Welcome! We are pleased that you have shown interest...

I didn't read the rest. I'd read the generic acceptance letter from colleges across the nation dozens of times.

"Haaarvard, Haaaarvard, I'm going to go to Haaaarvard!" Alice sang next to me.

I turned to look at her.

"I thought you were coming to Dartmouth with Bella and I?"

"Oh come on, Edward!" She whined. "I've never been to Harvard, it's not fair! Everyone in this house has gone except for Emmett and I and I think we should get our shot!"

My eyes narrowed. "Bella will never go to Harvard."

"You're sending money to Dartmouth!" She exclaimed. "I'm sure Harvard will take your money just as gladly as Dartmouth is."

"Yeah, considering the amount I'd have to give to get her there. Imagine it now, Harvard taking three students from the small logging town of Forks, Washington. And one of them graduated with a 3.2 grade average."

"So help her out with some calculus tests and bump her up to a 4.0." She suggested.

"I've tried." I admitted. "Every time we try to study together... We get distracted."

Alice rolled her eyes. "I guess I can go to Harvard after Bella's been changed. It'd be better to go when she's already gone through the change anyway."

My body tensed. Esme saw my reaction and tried to change the subject.

"I think Dartmouth is a wonderful idea!" She beamed. We have that new house that we've barely lived in and Carlisle got along with the other Doctors there so well!"

"I think I'd like to teach this time." Carlisle interjected, coming into the kitchen from the main room.

"You'd make a wonderful teacher." Esme said adoringly as Carlisle wrapped his arms around her waste. I looked at the clock over the oven.

5:30. I bobbed up and down slightly.

5:31.

"Well we're going out to hunt." Carlisle said, after reaching down and kissing Esme's mouth gently, "Would any of you like to come."

"Oh no. I think we'll want to stick around." Alice smiled.

_"It's going to be a good fight."_ she thought. I smiled.

Jasper and Emmett came running into the kitchen, gently shoving each other. Esme cleared her throat and they both stopped dead in their tracks. Their guilty eyes fell on her as they waited for their berating.

"No fighting while were gone." She warned.

"Awh but mom! We were just gonna..." Emmett started.

Esme interrupted him. "I know exactly what you were going to do. My petunias are starting to bloom and I don't need them ruined."

"But we ha-"

Jasper elbowed Emmett in the ribs. "We understand." he said, in a calming voice. "I promise your petunias will be as perfect when you return as they are now."

Emmett's face fell and Esme kissed Jasper on the cheek. "We'll be back later tonight." They moved towards the sliding glass door, Carlisle shot one last warning look into the room, and they disappeared.

Emmett turned to Jasper, his face angry. "You said we..."

"Shh... They're not out of ear shot yet." He whispered almost inaudibly. The room went silent. We could all hear Carlisle and Esme's landing across the river and the sound of the branches of the trees whipping back as they flew through them.

When we couldn't hear them anymore, all the eyes in the room turned to me.

"I don't hear their thoughts." I said. "They've got to be at least five miles away."

"Perfect." Jasper said and ran out the back door. Emmett smiled and ran after him.

"You scared me there for a minute." Emmett said. "I thought you were gonna whimp out." Jasper laughed.

"I said we understood and her petunias would be perfect. I didn't say we wouldn't fight, we'll just avoid the flower beds."

Alice danced quickly across the lawn and perched herself on the boulder in the back. Rosalie floated after her. When I sat down, she looked at me.

"I bet you a whole week without Bella in the house after she's ungrounded that Emmett will win." she said. I rolled my eyes and Alice glared at her.

_"Jasper is going to win." _Alice thought. "_It's going to be embarrassing." _

I smiled. "Ok," I answered. "I'll take that. But if Jasper wins, the next time Bella and Alice have a sleepover you have to be there AND be nice to her."

She grimaced but looked at Emmett in the yard and then down at Alice. Alice was staring intently at the river, watching the waves roll over the shiny rocks on the bottom.

"Deal." She said. I saw the corners of Alice's mouth twitch.

We looked at our brothers.

"Alright." Jasper said. "Ready."

"Ready." Emmett smiled.

They moved very quickly. Emmett trudged at Jasper and threw his arms out to grab him but Jasper maneuvered through the easily and twirled around behind him. Emmett growled and dodged Jasper's counter attack.

They both wove in and out of each other's reach for several minutes. Rosalie was shouting to Emmett behind me.

I kept checking my watch as I watched them avoid each others attacks.

5:50

5:52

5:58

6:03

I growled. Time went so slowly whenever I was waiting to see Bella. Charlie was firm on his Edward-ban while he wasn't home. I was granted visitation hours from 7 to 9:30, but I couldn't step in the house one minute before they started.

It didn't really matter. Usually I would drive my car home after I left her each night and then run back and sneak through her window.

Though I hated that she was grounded, I couldn't disagree with the reason. While I'd been on my self-loathing journey across the United States, Bella had been back in Forks with her friend Jacob Black. He'd taught her to ride... motorcycles. I cringed at that word. The thought of Bella speeding along the highway on something so dangerous infuriated me.

It was Jacob's fault she was grounded. He had told Charlie about Bella's escapades in an attempt to get her in trouble so she couldn't see me anymore. It's worked, partially. And Charlie wasn't giving up his resolve either.

Though he'd betrayed her, it hurt Bella very much that Jacob had stopped talking to her. She tried to hide it from me because of the whole "mortal enemy" thing, but I saw it on her face every time some one said his name or a motorcycle flew past her house. I hated to admit it, but I was glad he wouldn't see her. Despite her several assurances, I didn't trust the dog. He was a danger to her, and she shouldn't see him.

I looked down at my watch again.

6:23

I growled again. I couldn't leave until 6:47. If I conformed to a pitiful 65 miles an hour, something I hated, and I left my house at 13 till I'd reach Bella's house at exactly 7 O'clock. I tried leaving later and going at my normal speed but the waiting was worse than the drive. At least at 65, I was going to her.

6:30.

I looked up at the fight. Emmett had gotten a hold of Jaspers shirt and it was hanging in shreds from his body. Alice and Rosalie were both on their feet cheering them on.

They connected, both holding each other by the arms. Emmett had the upper hand when they were in contact. He had strength, Jasper had skill.

Emmett slammed Jasper into the ground and it shook the windows of the house a little. Jasper crawled out of the groove in the grass and lunged. He twisted around to his back but Emmett got a hold of his wrists and threw him again.

Jasper landed on his feet and sprung back like a gymnast. Emmett dodged out of the way and rounded on him for a second attack. They approached each other and growled. Jasper feinted to the left and Emmett bought it.

"Oh no." Alice said, going completely still next to me. Rosalie and I both looked at her and I saw the vision she'd just had and turned to watch Emmett and Jasper in horror.

Emmett shifted his weight to his right foot and spun around behind Jasper. He lunged for his back but Jasper turned in time and planted a kick to Emmett's stomach, David Beckham style. It would have been amazing if Emmett didn't go flying uncontrollably through the air. He sailed 30 feet towards the house and Rosalie cringed, seeing his path for the glass wall.

I knew better. He lost momentum 5 feet before he reached the wall, and fell, hard, right into Esme's flower bed.

Dirt flew 20 feet into the air as he buried into the soft soil. Everyone froze. After what seemed like 10 minutes Alice flew to the garden and yanked Emmett out of the way.

Esme's prize petunias were mulch.

"You destroyed them." She said disbelievingly at Emmett.

"It wasn't my fault, Jasper launched me." That started the great who ruined the flower bed argument. Everyone started screaming at each other. I sat back on my rock and watched my brothers and sister. It was hilarious. Alice was frantically trying to save any flowers left and Jasper was screaming in Emmett's face while Rosalie was trying to pull them apart.

I laughed. They all turned to me in disbelief.

"Oh come on guys." I said between laughs. "The one thing that could've gone wrong."

Alice stood up. "I guess Bella's rubbing off on us." She smiled.

Everyone laughed.

6:46.

"Oh!" I said. "I gotta go. Have fun explaining this to Esme."

They glared at me, but I hardly noticed as I flew into the kitchen and grabbed the rest of Bella's applications. I mixed the Dartmouth one amongst them, foolishly trying to hide it. I grabbed my keys and flew out to my car.

The trees flew past me entirely to slow. I grew impatient as my windshield wipers wiped away the slow drizzle that had begun to fall. The rain seemed to be keeping time with the slow pace. Finally, I passed the "Welcome to Forks" sign.

There were a lot of people out in the streets, something unusual for the small town. I was grateful for whatever it was that had them out. Their presence forced me to drive slowly.

When I finally turned onto Bella's street, I hit the accelerator. I came to a stop in front of her yard and began breathing excitedly. Being close to her was like being able to breathe after being held under water too long, or so I imagined.

I stepped out of the car and moved quickly to the front door. I could hear Charlie and Bella inside.

"So.." Charlie hesitated.

"So what?" The most beautiful voice in the world answered.

"Nothing. I was just.." I could hear him trying to find the words in his head. "Just wondering what... Edward's plans are for next year?"

"Oh."

"Well."

I knocked on the door before Bella could answer. Both because I was still hoping to convince her of Dartmouth and because I didn't want Charlie hanging over us all night. I could handle this situation much better than Bella could.

There was the sound of chairs scraping against the floor as Bella ran to the door.

"Coming!" she called.

"Go away." Charlie mumbled behind her. I smiled.

The door flew open and she was there.

"Hey." she said and smiled. I lifted our entwined fingers and touched her face, feeling the warmth of her skin against the cool of the back of my hand.

"How was your afternoon?" I said gently.

"Slow." she replied.

"For me as well." I said a smile slightly pulling at my lips. The feeling of being around her was indescribable, the warmth of her skin, the sweetness of her scent, the delicious thudding of her heart. I lifted her wrist to my face and breathed deeply, letting the glorious smell of her fill my whole body. Every time I was around her, there was only the two of us, nothing else existed in the world.

That is until the other souls of the world insisted on making their presence known.

"_Only two hours. Only two hours." _Charlie chanted to himself as he shuffled into the living room. He spotted us standing in the doorway and stamped his feet.

_"Slam the door, Bella. Shut it right in his face!" _

I moved Bella's hand from my face, still clutching her fingers in mine and looked up at her father.

"Good Evening, Charlie." I said pleasantly.

Charlie crossed his arms over his chest and grunted. It was the most hospitality he could muster, though he was only even trying for Bella's sake.

_"No good kid. Why can't he just leave already? Wait? Did Bella tell me where he was going to college? I hope Esme keeps him in state, Washington State maybe or UW._

I fought a smile and looked down at Bella again. "I brought another set of applications." I said brightly, showing her the manila envelope. She looked down at the stamps I had curled around my littlest finger and groaned. My lips curled up as I read the disbelief on her face as she stared at the applications in my hand. We'd already filled out dozens, though the only one that really mattered was in my hand right now.

There are still a few open deadlines. And a few places willing to make exceptions." I said reassuringly.

Her eyes narrowed at the word exceptions as she realized what I meant, I laughed. I couldn't understand Bella's aversion to gifts. If I could only convince her to marry me, then everything I had would also be hers including tuition money.

"Shall we?" I asked as I nudged her towards the kitchen.

_"She could fill them out by herself."_ Charlie's thoughts grumbled. _"Though I have to admit, the kid does show a lot of devotion to getting Bella a college education."_ He quickly shook his head to rid his mind of the positive thought he had about me and followed us into the kitchen.

I sat in a chair at the kitchen table and began pulling the forms out of the envelope while Bella cleared the table of the dinner she and Charlie had been enjoying before I arrived. I noticed the worn copy of _Wuthering Heights_ when she lifted it from the table and raised an eyebrow. I meant to comment on her reading the same novel again but Charlie interrupted me.

"Speaking of college applications, Edward," Charlie began... "Bella and I were just talking about next year. Have you decided where you're going to school?"

I smiled at Charlie, glad I was the one who would finish his and Bella's previous conversation.

"Not yet. I've received a few acceptance letters, but I"m still wighting my options." He wasn't convinced, he pressed on.

"Where have you been accepted?"

"Syracuse... Harvard... Dartmouth... and I just got accepted to the University of Alaska Southeast today." I turned and winked at Bella. She giggled into her hand.

"Harvard? Dartmouth?" Though he hated me the awe in his voice was clear. "Well that's pretty... that's something. Yeah, but the University of Alaska... you wouldn't really consider that when you could go Ivy League. I mean, your father would want you to..."

"Carlisle's always fine with whatever I choose to do." I interrupted.

_"Like leave my daughter to die in the middle of the forest and drown in her own misery for six months while you're off gallivanting around the beach in California."_

My eyes tightened by Bella distracted my from Charlie's accusations.

"Guess what, Edward?" she asked in a baiting voice.

"What, Bella?" I asked, echoing the false high pitch in her voice.

"I just got MY acceptance to the University of Alaska!"

"Congratulations!" I said so that Charlie couldn't detect the falseness of my tone. "What a coincidence."

Charlie's eyes narrowed as he look between us.

"Fine." He muttered darkly. "I'm going to watch the game, Bella. Nine-thirty." He felt the need to remind us of my visiting hours every night, it was his usual note of departure.

"Er, Dad?" Bella said. "Remember the very recent discussion about my freedom..?"

He sighed. "Right. Okay, _ten_-thirty. You still have a curfew on school nights."

My head shot up. "Bella's no longer grounded?" I was shocked, very rarely was I ever surprised by something.

"Conditionally." Charlie spat at me. "What's it to you?"

Everything.

"It's just good to know. Alice has been itching for a shopping partner and I'm sure Bella would love to see some city lights."

Or rather, I would love to whisk Bella off to our meadow and spend hours staring at her in the sunlight.

"NO!" Charlie growled, his face flushing purple. I could see the same headlines I saw on the news that afternoon with Alice rush through his mind in newspaper print. I looked down to the table and saw the lead story staring up at me.

"Dad!" Bella exclaimed. "What's with you?"

"I don't want you going to Seattle right now." Charlie hissed through clenched teeth.

"Huh?" she said.

"I told you about that story in the paper-- there's some kind of gang on a killing spree in Seattle and I want you to steer clear, okay?"

Bella rolled her eyes and continued with a laugh in her voice. A laugh that made me slightly angry. "Dad, there's a better chance that I'll get struck by lightning than that the one day I'm in Seattle--"

I didn't want to hear anymore. "No that's fine, Charlie." I interrupted. "I didn't mean Seattle. I was thinking Portland, actually. I would have Bella in Seattle either. Of course not."

She looked at me unbelievingly as I lifted the newspaper from the table and began to scan the lead story. Her eyes flickered to Charlie and then widened as if she had found a hidden meaning in my words. There was none, I wouldn't let Bella near Seattle, not until my family had the newborn situation under control.

"Fine." Charlie said, accepting Portland as an acceptable shopping destination, though probably only because I had suggested it would be Alice to go with her and not myself. He turned and hurried off to the TV just as the Wizards took the ball in the tip off.

"What--" Bella began.

"Hold on." I warned. Though he was seated comfortably in his recliner, Charlie was still hanging on our every word. I pushed a stack of papers towards her.

"I think you can recycle your essays for this one. Same questions." I said loud enough for Charlie to catch every word.

She sighed and picked up a pen and filled out the repetitive information. I smiled. She hadn't noticed the Dartmouth letterhead. Maybe she would just fill out the application and I could mail it off without her realizing she'd applied to Ivy League. Once she got her acceptance letter, surely she wouldn't say no. No, she'd still refuse, but Charlie wouldn't. It was strange to think of him as an ally in his current frame of mind, but he would be.

I looked down at the headline again and then stared out the window as I thought about the meaning behind it. Five murders in thirteen days. The newborn must've been left alone, and unsupervised. This was very sloppy work, it wouldn't be long before the Volturi got wind of it, and if they came to Seattle, what would stop them from coming to Forks to check up on my promise. I hadn't expected so little time before...

Bella snorted and I heard papers shuffling. I looked down and saw her shoving the Dartmouth application out of the way. Damn.

"Bella?" I asked, trying to feign innocence.

"Be serious, Edward. _Dartmouth?_

I picked up the application she had pushed aside and smoothed it out in front of her again. "I think you'd like New Hampshire. There's a full complement of night courses for me, and the forests are very conveniently located for the avid hiker. Plentiful wildlife." I smiled the half smile that make her pulse race.

Her mouth tightened as she sucked in a sharp, fast, stubborn breath of air through her nose.

"I'll let you pay me back if that makes you happy." I lied. "If you want, I can charge you interest." This was a lie too. The only think I'd let her pay me back in, was years.

"Like I could even get in without some enormous bribe. Or was that part of the loan? The new Cullen wing of the library? Ugh! Why are we having this discussion again?"

"Will you just fill out the application, please, Bella? It won't hurt you to apply."

A muscle in her jaw flexed. "You know what? I don't think I will." She said smartly.

Her hand moved towards the application. I sighed and reached out for it, tucking it safely in my jacket pocket before her hand had reached the table, or her eyes had noticed my movement. She shook her head a little and the disappearance of the form and then glared at me when she'd realized what I'd done.

"What are you doing?" She demanded.

I looked directly into her eyes. "I sign your name better than you do yourself. You've already written the essays."

She glared again. "You're going way overboard with this, you know." Her voice was lower so that Charlie wouldn't hear, not that there was any need. Charlie was so engrossed in his game Bella and I could leave the house, steal his car and knock over a convenient store and he wouldn't notice as long as we were back before the game was over.

"I really don't need to apply anywhere else." She continued. "I've already been accepted in Alaska. I can almost afford the first semester's tuition. It's as good an alibi as any. There's no need to throw away a bunch of money, no matter whose it is."

I was so tired of this argument. The eagerness for damnation, everything inside me tightened when I imagined her, hard and cold. When I saw her eyes, bright crimson instead of their normal beautiful chocolate brown. I'd lose it. Her eyes, her warmth, her smell... it hurt to even think about.

"Bella..." I began, hoping to convince her.

"Don't start. I agree that I need to go through the motions for Charlie's sake, but we both know I'm not going to be in any condition to go to school next fall. To be anywhere near people.

I swallowed the venom that was welling in my mouth. Her stubbornness was making me angry. "I thought the timing was still undecided." I said as softly as I could manage. "You might enjoy a semester or two of college. There are a lot of human experiences you've never had."

"I'll get to those afterward." She said, brushing my concerns aside.

"They won't be _human_ experiences afterward." I reminded her. "You don't get a second chance at humanity, Bella."

She sighed. "You've got to be reasonable about the timing, Edward. It's just too dangerous to mess around with."

"There's no danger yet." I said quickly.

Her eyes narrowed. Sure, I knew what here concerns were, Victoria... the Volturi, but I had plans to deal with these concerns. Alice was watching every move both of them made and Bella couldn't be found by the Volturi with her mental block.

I watched her eyes begin to dart back and forth and her face morph from determination to panic. "Bella?" I asked quickly, my face echoing hers. "There's no hurry. I won't let anyone hurt you, you can take all the time you need." This was more proof that I already didn't need. She wasn't ready.

" I want to hurry." She whispered and smiled. "I want to be a monster too."

My face became as hard as stone and my jaw snapped together. "You have no idea what you're saying." I said through my teeth as I flung the paper at her.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Monsters are not a joke, Bella."

She stared down at the paper, her eyes widening with fear. "A... a vampire is doing this?"

I smiled, but there was no humor behind it. "You'd be surprised, Bella, at how often my kind are the source behind the horrors in your human news." I said coldly. "It's easy to recognize, when you know what to look for. The information here indicates a newborn vampire is loose in Seattle, bloodthirsty, wild, out of control. The way we all were."

She looked away from my hard eyes and re read the first sentences of the paper. I continued.

"We've been monitoring the situation for a few weeks. All the signs are there-- the unlikely disappearances, always in the night, the poorly disposed of corpses, the lack of other evidence... Yes someone brand-new. And no one seems to be taking responsibility for the neophyte... Well, it's not our problem. We wouldn't even pay attention to the situation if it wasn't going on so close to home. Like I said, this happens all the time. The existence of monsters results in monstrous consequences."

She shivered and looked away from the paper. "It wont be the same for me." She whispered. "You won't let me be like that. We'll live in Antarctica."

I snorted. "Penguins, lovely."

She laughed and shoved the paper off the table trying to inconspicuous. "Alaska then, as planned. Only somewhere much more remote than Juneau, somewhere with grizzlies galore."

"Better." I smiled. "There are polar bears, too. Very fierce. And the wolves get quite large."

Her face immediately change from humor to horror as her mouth dropped and a short gust of breath escaped her lips.

"What's wrong?" I asked, panicked. But before I finished the question, I realized what had upset her. Wolves... Jacob. My body hardened, I hated being reminded of how much she thought of him.

"Oh.." I continued. "Never mind the wolves then. If the idea is offensive to you."

"He was my best friend, Edward... Of course it offends me."

"Please forgive my thoughtlessness." I said stiffly. "I shouldn't have suggested that."

"Don't worry about it." She said, clenching her hands into fists.

The silence was like a thick mass between us and she fumed over my suggestion and I raged over her dependence on Jacob. I wanted to kill him. I wanted the man, no dog, that Bella thought of probably as much as she thought of me, okay, almost as much as she thought of me to die. I wanted him to suffer, I wanted to see him in pain that I knew was caused by my grip. I would keep him away from her if it was the last thing I did. He was dangerous, and he would NEVER hurt my Bella.

Eventually, the silence became as uncomfortable for me as seeing the distress on her face and I broke.

"Sorry..." I said. "Really."

"I know. I know it's not the same think. I shouldn't have reacted that way. It's just that.. well, I was already thinking about Jacob before you came over."

I stiffened even more as a weight settled in over me. The rage began to burn in me like a white hot flame and my mouth filled with venom. I could feel the strength building in my muscles as every fiber of my being desired to run to La Push and destroy the beast that was through some joke my competition.

And yet through all of the anger, there was a sadness too, an emptiness in the pit of my stomach that echoed the pain I'd been consumed by in the previous months when I'd thought I'd lost her forever.

She continued, though her tone changed from an explanation to pleading. "Charlie says Jake is having a hard time. He's hurting right now, and... it's my fault."

"You've done nothing wrong, Bella." I said, annunciating each word clearly as I tried to calm my anger.

She breathed and then continued. "I need to make it better, Edward. I owe him that. And it's one of Charlie's conditions, anyway---"

I sat up straighter and stared at her hard. "You know it's out of the question for you to be around a werewolf unprotected, Bella. And it would break the treaty if any of us cross over onto their land. Do you want to start a war?"

"Of course not!"

"Then there's really no point in discussing the matter further." I relaxed back into my chair and looked around the kitchen, my eyes resting on the copy of Wuthering Heights Bella had moved from the table earlier.  
"I'm glad Charlie has decided to let you out, you're sadly in need of a visit to the bookstore. I can't believe you're reading Wuthering Heights again. Don't you know it by heart yet?"

"Not all of us have photographic memories." She said curtly.

"Photographic memory or not, I don't understand why you like it. The characters are ghastly people who ruin each others' lives. I don't know how Heathcliff and Cathy ended up being ranked with couples like Romeo and Juliet or Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. It isn't a love story, it's a hate story."

"You have some serious issues with classics." She said sharply.

"Perhaps it's because I'm not impressed by antiquity." I smiled, glad I had successfully moved on from the Jacob subject.

"Honestly though, why do you read it over and over? What is it that appeals to you?"

She seemed to relax a little as the conversation moved forward, completely erasing the tension in my muscles.

"I'm not sure." She said. "I think it's something about the inevitability. How nothing can keep them apart-- not her selfishness, or his evil, or even death in the end."

"It was true, and a good point, but it didn't sway my opinion. "I still think it would be a better story if either of them had one redeeming quality."

"I think that may be the point," She continued. "Their love is their only redeeming quality."

"I hope you have better sense than that-- to fall in love with someone so... malignant."

She smiled. "It's a bit to late for em to worry about who I fall in love with. But even without the warning, I seem to have managed fairly well."

I laughed. "I'm glad you think so."

"Well," She said, "I hope you're smart enough to stay away from someone so selfish. Catherine is really the source of all the trouble, not Heathcliff."

"I'll be on my guard." I promised.

She sighed so I reached out and brushed my fingers across her feather soft cheek. Her warm hand rested on mine and she closed her eyes.

"I need to see Jacob."

My shoulders dropped and my eyes fell shut as I tried to find more patience in me. "No."

"It's truly not dangerous at all." She pleaded, "I used to spend all day in La Push with the whole lot of them, and nothing ever happened."

Her voice faltered and I heard her heartbeat accelerate. She was lying.

"Werewolves are unstable. Sometimes, the people near them get hurt. Sometimes they get killed."

When she said nothing, I filled my chest with air and stared at her triumphantly, waiting for her to agree with me.

"You don't know them." She said finally.

I breathed out, nearly groaning. "I know them better than you think, Bella. I was here the last time."

"The last time?"

"We started crossing paths with the wolves about seventy years ago... We had just settled near Hoquiam. That was before Alice and Jasper were with us. We out numbered them, but the wouldn't have stopped it from turning into a fight if not for Carlisle. He managed to convince Ephraim Black that coexisting was possible and eventually, we made the truce.

We thought the line had died out with Ephraim. That the genetic quirk which allowed the transmutation had been lost... Your bad luck seems to get more potent every day. Do you realize that your insatiable pull for all things deadly was strong enough to recover a pack of mutant canines from extinction? If we could bottle your luck, we'd have a weapon of mass destruction on our hands."

She stared at me incredulously. "But I didn't bring them back... Don't you know?"

"Know what?"

"My bad luck had nothing to do with it. The werewolves came back because the vampires did."

I stared at her. We'd never considered that there could be an outside trigger for the gene. We'd always assumed it was a mutation in the DNA. Scientifically, it was impossible for there to be any correlation between the presence of vampires and the resurfacing of a dead gene in the Quileute tribe.

"Is that what they think?" I asked, glaring.

"Edward, look at the facts. Seventy years ago, you came here and the werewolves showed up. You come back now, and the werewolves show up again. Do you think that's a coincidence?"  
It was true. The timing was a little to coincidental. And it may not be scientific for an out side trigger to cause a mutating gene but really, was it scientific for such a gene to exist in the first place. There was no other creature on earth that could morph into a completely different species and back at will. But the facts didn't stand up, it was entirely too improbable.

I relaxed. "Carlisle will be interested in that theory." I said.

"Theory." She scoffed.

I stared out the window considering the likely hood of Bella's theory, but I could come to any logical conclusion that would prove her theory. I sighed and watched the rain fall on the window, it was dark probably almost time for me to leave. I'd get wet on the run over here, not that I minded. But Bella would.

I turned back to her, not willing to waste anymore of out time on Jacob Black.

"Interesting, but not exactly relevant." I said. "The situation remains the same."

She sighed, sinking deep into thought. After a moments silence, she spoke again. "Please just listen to me for a minute. This is so much more important than some whim to drop in on an old friend. Jacob is in _pain_. I can't not try to help him-- I can't give up on him now, when he needs me. Just because he's not human all the time... Well, he was there for me when I was.. not so human myself. You don't know what it was like..."

It was all I needed to hear. I could already see the ghost of pain creeping across her face as she began to curl in on herself.

I moved quickly to her side and wrapped her close to my chest. It was still difficult to contain the hatred I felt for Jacob that was running through me, but I couldn't see this look on Bella's face. I closed my eyes and snapped my jaw shut as I felt her words crush me over and over. But I deserved this. I had caused my Bella to live through agony for months and Jacob had been the one to put her back together again. Though I could barely bare the pain of her words, I listened.

"If Jacob hadn't helped me... I'm not sure what you would have come home to. I owe him better than this, Edward."

"I'll never forgive myself for leaving you." I said when she had finished. "Not if I live a hundred thousand years."

She placed her warm hands on each of my cheeks, waiting for me to open my eyes. I sighed and obliged.

"You were just trying to do the right thing. And I'm sure it would have worked with anyone less mental than me. Besides, you're here now. That's the part that matters."

"If I'd never left, you wouldn't feel the need to go risk you life to comfort a _dog_."

Bella flinched at my words, but I couldn't take them back. My hatred for the animal was real.

"I don't know how to phrase this properly." I admitted. "It's going to sound cruel, I suppose. But I've come too close to losing you in the past. I know what it feels like to think I have. I am not going ot tolerate anything dangerous."

"You have to trust me on this. I'll be fine." She pleaded.

My lips pressed together as I fought back the pain. "Please, Bella..."

She stared deeply into my eyes. "Please what?"

"Please, for me. Please make a conscious effort to keep yourself safe. I'll do everything I can, but I would appreciate a little help."

"I'll work on it." She muttered.

"Do you really have any idea how important you are to me? Any concept at all of how much I love you?" I said as I wrapped her closer to my chest.

She kissed the crevasse of my neck. "I know how much I love _you_."

"You compare one small tree to the entire forest."

I felt a movement on my chest that felt like her rolling her eyes. "Impossible."

I reached down and pressed my lips to her fragrant hair. "No werewolves." I said firmly.

"I'm not going along with that. I have to see Jacob." I breathed another deep breath of frustration.

"Then I'll have to stop you."

"We'll see about that. He's still my friend." I didn't like the determination in her voice. It would be a test of her resolve against mine.

I reached down and kissed the top of her head again just as the final buzzer on the game in the living room sounded. Heavy footsteps echoed in the hall and Charlie stood in the doorway, arms folded, as the clocked ticked three minutes past 10:30.


	3. Chapter 2 Evasion

Chapter 2

When I pulled my car in the garage after leaving Bella's I could hear my family arguing in the living room.

_"What do you mean it was an accident!" _Carlisle's thoughts told me he was screaming at Emmett. _"We told you, NO FIGHTING! You went behind out backs and now Esme's petunias are ruined!"_

_ "Everything was fine!" _Emmett protested. _"That is until Jasper launched me into the flower bed."_

_ "Launched you!"_Jasper exclaimed. _"I was just defending myself against your attack! You could have stopped yourself before you got to the flowerbeds if you would have been paying attention!"_

_ "I was trying not to hit the glass wall!"_

_ "It doesn't matter who launched whom, or who landed in the flowerbeds, the point is you BOTH did exactly the opposite of what we told you!" _Carlisle said interrupting Emmett and Jasper.

Alice giggled.

_"Don't think that you two are getting off either. You sat and watched it all happen without trying to stop it." _

I walked into the living room and saw my entire family standing around Carlisle, Emmett and Jasper. Carlisle was turned towards Alice and Rosalie. Rosalie's eyes flicked up to me when I entered the room.

"Edward didn't do anything either." She protested. I looked innocently at my parents.

"I don't know what she's talking about Carlisle... I was at Bella's all night. What's going on?" Carlisle's eyes narrowed at he looked at me.

"Nice try, Edward. But your scent is all over the backyard."

"Damn." I hissed.

"You will all replant the garden tonight, it better be perfect by morning." Carlisle demanded.

"But Bella..." I began to protest.

"...Can spend one night without you." Carlisle finished for me. I groaned and reached for my cell phone. Alice bounded up to me and dialed Bella's number. It rang three times and Charlie answered the phone.

"Hey, Charlie." Alice chirped into the mouth piece. "Is Bella available. I have a quick question about our Spanish homework."

"I'll get her Alice, just one second." She handed me the phone and walked out the back door with Rosalie. I'd taken to letting Alice call Bella's house for me whenever I needed to get a hold of her by phone. When I called and Charlie answered, Bella was always unavailable somehow.

"Hey, Alice." Bella's voice said.

"Hello." I answered.

"Oh..!" She said surprised. "Uh... Just a second, Alice." There was a pause as I heard her walking up the stairs towards her bedroom. I heard the door close and the springs groan as she plopped down on her bed.

"What's up?" Bella asked. "I was just about to say goodnight and head up to my room. I thought you'd be here in a minute."

"Bad news, love." I sighed. "I have to rebuild a flowerbed tonight."

"You have to... what?" she asked confused.

"It's a long story, I'll explain tomorrow. See you first thing!"

"I can't wait." She replied.

"I love you." I said.

"I love you too." The phone clicked and she was gone. I trudged out into the backyard into the mud and mulch of Esme's once prize flowerbeds.

It took us less than an hour to clear the entire garden, plow the dirt, plant the new bulbs, fertilize and mow the lawn. I looked at the clock and wondered if Bella would be asleep. I was almost midnight, I was sure she would be.

_"Wanna play chess?"_ Alice asked.

"No." I replied. "I think I'm going to go be with Bella tonight."

"You already told her you were staying here..."

"I know." I said. "I'd like to watch her sleep." Alice paused for a minute and then looked at me, a plan forming in her mind.

"Can I come?" She asked.

"I don't know, Alice." I hesitated.

"Awh come on, Edward. I wont wake her I swear!"

"Alright." I conceded. "but we can't be seen by Charlie." She rolled her eyes and dashed upstairs to grab the chess board. She was back in a second.

"Lets go." She smiled.

When we were out of earshot of my house I turned to Alice, the moon was sparkling off the rain on her skin, almost like the sunlight.

"What do you think of Wuthering Heights?" I asked.

"It's alright... I guess." She said. "Bella likes it but, really... I don't know. It great writing but the characters are terrible." I laughed.

"You might even say 'ghastly'". I said smiling. She looked at me confused but decided not to ask as we were approaching Bella's street.

We climbed the side of her house and slid through the window. Bella was breathing deeply but she hadn't kicked her blankets to the bottom of the bed yet. She'd probably only been asleep for less than half an hour.

Alice darted into the bathroom and was back before the door had creaked closed.

"Alice!" I hissed. "I said we can't be seen by Charlie. He can hear the door creaking you kno... what are you doing?"

She was bending over Bella, brushing her hair out of her face, a small bottle in her left hand.

"Adding a little moisturizer." Alice explained quickly as she rubbed a white cream under Bella's eyelids. "These dark circles have been killing me for days." She pulled out another bottle and dabbed a similar looking cream over the moisturizer. When she pulled away, Bella let out a deep breath and rolled to her side. I walked to the bed, kissed her forehead and pulled the blankets up over her.

While I sat and watched her snore, Alice pulled a second chair to Bella's desk and set up the chessboard. I joined her at the table and we stared at the board together. After thirty seconds had passed Alice cursed and knocked over her king.

"Damn." She whispered. "Best two out of three." I smiled and looked down at the board again, only to be interrupted by the sound of creaking stairs.

"Charlie's coming." I hissed. Alice tucked the pieces into a bag and shoved the board behind the desk before throwing her tiny frame under Bella's bed. I flew to the closet, closing the door just as Bella's dust ruffle stopped moving and the door creaked open.

Charlie walked to Bella's side, brushed her hair over her ear and stared at her for a few seconds. He frowned and re-tucked the blankets I had pulled over her.

"I love you, Bella." He whispered and left the room. As irritated as I was with Charlie's new Anti-Edward attitude, I could not dislike him. Not just because he was Bella's father, but because he was a good father. He loved Bella, more than anything in the world, and his thoughts always reflected that. Something in the pit of my stomach dropped as I realized that by turning Bella, I was not just destroying her soul, I was taking her away from Charlie too. I would destroy him too.

Charlie turned and left the room and Alice flitted out from under the bed, pointed directly at Bella's backpack, which was hanging on the hook by the closet. She took a sheet of homework from Bella's book and took it to the desk, erasing Bella's answers and changing them to the correct ones.

"What are you doing?" I hissed as I slid into Bella's bed, wrapping her body in the warm blanket and pulling her onto my chest.

"Well if you're not going to tutor her... I'm going to make sure she at least has the grades to get to Dartmouth." I rolled my eyes.

"Alice, I've already written the check and sealed the envelope, which I'll drop off before we go and get my car in the morning. She'll get in, trust me."

"All the same." She continued correcting Bella's math and science before finally going through her English essay.

We sat in Bella's room, Alice tidying and flipping through some of Bella's books and pulling things out of her closet while I watched her sleep until the light in the room began to turn gray. Alice made her way through the window first and when I landed softly on the ground beside her, we sprinted through the rain in the direction of the post office.

I dropped the Dartmouth letter in the box and raced Alice home. I beat her by three footsteps, running into the house with just enough time to change clothes and slide into my Volvo.

I sped down the wet highway while Alice re-did her hair in the vanity mirror. Alice's head perked up when she realized we were not headed towards school.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm going to pick Bella up." I answered. "I can't wait for her to drag that truck to school."

***

As we walked from class to class, Bella's mood seemed oddly upbeat. When I met her after Spanish and walked with her to the cafeteria, she seemed to be almost skipping. I couldn't understand what had her in such high spirits until we got to the cafeteria. Posters counting down the days of school left covered the walls along with pamphlets reminding seniors to get heir yearbooks, rings and graduation announcements.

Alice had ordered our gowns two days ago, a special tassel with real diamonds in the numbers would be attached to her cap, but I'd conformed to the traditional gold plated numbers that would match Bella's.

After I'd gone through the lunch line will Bella, buying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bag of chips and two bottles of water, I followed her to our usual lunch table where Angela and Ben were already waiting. Angela's hair was tousled in a messy half ponytail which was strikingly different from her usual sleek updo's. Her eyes were frantic as she looked up at us when we sat down.

"Have you sent your announcements, yet?" She asked.

_"Seriously," _Alice thoughts came from the other end of the table. _"Would it kill her to wear a skirt once and a while? Or a scarf? I'd love to see her in a nicely tailored jacket..." _Alice continued dressing Bella in her mind while she stared at her current ensemble with disgust.

"No." Bella answered Angela's question. "There's no point, really. Renee knows when I'm graduation. Who else is there?"

Angela turned her eyes to my sister. "How about you, Alice?"

Alice tore her eyes from Bella's t-shirt and smiled at Angela. "All done." She lied. We didn't send out graduation announcements. It could quickly turn into a disaster if any of our friends showed up to a ceremony packed with hundreds of humans.

"Lucky you." Angela said. "My mother has a thousand cousins and she expects me to hand-address one to everybody. I'm going to get carpal tunnel. I can't put it off any longer and I'm just dreading it."

Bella's lips curled into an inviting smile. "I'll help you," She said. "If you don't mind my awful handwriting." I smiled, stifling a laugh. Though it was true, Bella did have terrible penmanship, I liked the idea of her spending an afternoon with Angela. It would make Charlie happy to see her spending time with someone other than myself or Alice, and it would keep her away from...Jacob.

"That's so nice of you." Angela said, relieved. "I'll come over any time you want."

"Actually, I'd rather go to your house if that's okay- I'm sick of mine. Charlie un-grounded me last night."

Alice's thoughts immediately shifted from Bella's outfit to the conversation. Her mood was now ecstatic as she realized she would get the chance to fix Bella's wardrobe problems.

"Really?" Angela asked excitedly. "I thought you said you were in for life!"

"I'm more surprised than you are. I was sure I would at least have finished high school before he set me free." Bella chirped.

"Well, this is great, Bella!" Angela exclaimed. "We'll have to go out and celebrate!"

"You have no idea how good that sounds."

"What should we do?" Alice cooed, as ideas rushed through her thoughts. Paris, Rome, London, Milan... anyplace there was great shopping, Alice was game.

"Whatever you're thinking, Alice, I doubt I'm _that_ free." Bella said, almost as if she was able to see Alice's plans as clearly as I could.

"Free is free, right?" Alice said, desperate for her shopping dreams to become a reality.

"I'm sure I still have boundaries-- like the continental U.S for example." Angela and Ben laughed as I squeezed Bella's hand, but Alice grimaced, her hopes ruined. She slouched back in her chair but quickly perked back up again as she thought of New York, Vegas and Los Angeles.

"So what are we doing tonight?" Alice asked as her mood picked up.

"Nothing." Bella said, shaking her head. "Look, let's give it a couple of days to make sure he wasn't joking. It's a school night, anyway." I frowned. I was getting tired of Bella's house too.

"We'll celebrate this weekend, then." Alice said.

"Sure." Bella replied, placating her. Alice smiled and turned to Angela. Angela was thinking about a movie in Port Angeles, Alice was hoping for a shopping trip in Portland. As much as I knew Bella wouldn't enjoy a shopping trip, I had to agree with Alice. Port Angeles was just that much closer to Seattle.

As they discussed how to spend Bella's new freedom, I noticed her mood droop just a little. I looked at her, brushing a piece of hair behind her ear and sighed. It wasn't hard to know what she was thinking about when her face set in that way. She wanted to spend her freedom with Jacob... and it killed me.

I stared at Bella for only a few seconds before my focus was distracted. Alice's thoughts began racing through an involuntary vision. A dark night, trees whipping past as if she was running through them at top speed, the wolf scent in the air. There was an open field, with rain falling then Jasper flashed across the forest line. Carlisle lunging at something, Emmett pounding his feet on the ground, using his strength to force as much speed out of his legs as possible. A full moon, clouds moving across the sky, rain splashing in the creek. Esme leaping over a fallen tree, Rosalie right behind her. Their windswept hair blowing behind them as they focused on something ahead of them, the same concentration on Carlisle, Emmett and Jasper's face. Footsteps in the grass, a gust of wind blowing against the wet branches of the forest. Red Hair.

I snapped out of Alice's vision at the same time as she did, and with the same understanding.

"Alice? Alice!" Angela was screaming in panic.

I saw Bella's face turn to Alice as she heard Angela's cries. Her face was worried as she recognized Alice's "Vision face".

I composed myself and laughed, looking at Alice. "Is it naptime already, Alice?" I asked in a teasing tone. With the vision having passed, Alice was able to recompose herself and follow my lead.

"Sorry, I was daydreaming, I guess." She lied perfectly.

"Daydreaming's better than facing two more hours of school." Ben said sourly, and Alice shifted everyone flawlessly back into casual conversation... Although, she might be a little too animated now.

Though she kept up with the conversation well, her eyes would shift to mine as we maintained our own silent conversation.

_"Victoria's coming."_ Alice thought. _"This weekend." _I nodded.

_"You're going to hide Bella, right. I mean we can go after Victoria but I'd feel better and I KNOW you'd feel safer if Bella was hidden." _One more quick nod. Bella was glancing up at us, it was hard to keep her from noticing anything.

_"Where to hide her though? Obviously not her house... and it shouldn't be anywhere outside, just in case she gets around us somehow. Our house maybe?"_ I shook my head.

_"I'd suggest La Push.. but I know you'd freak."_ she added when she saw the shift in my casual facial expression. _"Though I detest the idea of her palling around with the wolves as much as you do, I think Victoria would avoid their scent, it's rank"_

I glared at her, my way of saying no.

_"Ok then.. maybe she should leave the state. I'd say I'd take her shopping but I don't want to risk her saying no... You could take her somewhere but... where? I have no idea what time she'll be here, only that it's at night. It could be two in the morning for crying out loud, you'd never be able to keep her out that late." _Our conversation paused as she tried to think of a way to get Bella as far away from Forks as possible in a way that would be acceptable to Charlie.

_"The plane tickets!" _She said suddenly. _"Remember? Esme and Carlisle got them for her for her last birthday. They should still be okay right? Take her to Jacksonville this weekend. That way we don't even have to explain about Victoria and risk her being difficult! Thank you, I am a genius."_

I smiled. I had to hand it to her, it really was a great idea. Alice's thoughts remained smug as she focused on her conversation with Angela. Bella kept glancing at me, and I could tell she was waiting for an explanation for what Alice had seen. I didn't want to lie to her, but Alice was right. If Bella knew about Victoria, she'd come up with some ridiculous reason she'd need to stay behind... or worse, a reason she should be changed sooner.

When the lunch bell rang, I slowed my pace with Ben's in order to discuss an English assignment I'd finished three days ago in the hopes of avoiding Bella's questions. It became harder and harder to avoid alone time with her the rest of the day, something I normally aimed for.

For the rest of the day, I had to make sure there was someone else with us walking in between classes, and when school was over I was so desperate I had to result to speaking with Mike Newton of all people.

"...but I just replaced the battery." Mike said as I suggested it may be the problem his car was having. Bella was lagging behind us.

"Perhaps it's the cables?" I offered.

"Maybe. I really don't know anything about cars," Mike admitted. "I need to have someone look at it, but I can't afford to take it to Dowling's." I saw Bella's mouth open and then snap shut again as the "Jacob look" washed over her face. I'd known the dog had fixed up two old motorcycles for them while I was away, so he must have some talent as a mechanic. It didn't impress me, it was another reason I despised him, his obvious lack of concern for Bella's safety.

"I know a few things--." I said to Mike. "I could take a look, if you'd like. Just let me drop Alice and Bella off at home."

Mike turned to me, his mouth hanging open. "Er... thanks." He said. "But I have to get to work. Maybe some other time."

"Absolutely." I said brightly, though I was disappointed. Now I'd have to come up with something to say to Bella. My mind raced through possibilities.

"See ya." Mike said, more to Bella than me, and shook his head disbelievingly as he drove away. _"What's with Cullen? Offering to help me fix my car? I wonder what he wants...."_

"What was that about?" Bella asked as I held open the passenger door of my Volvo.

"Just being helpful." I shrugged. I slid into my seat and slowly backed out of the parking lot. "You're really not that good a mechanic, Edward. Maybe you should have Rosalie take a look at it tonight, just so you look good if Mike decides to let you help, you know. Not that it wouldn't be fun to watch his face if Rosalie showed up to help. But since Rosalie is supposed to be across the country attending college, I guess that's not the best idea. Too bad. Though I suppose, for Mike's car, you'll do. It's only within the finer tunings of a good Italian sports car that you're out of your depth. And speaking of Italy and sports cars that I stole there, you still owe me a yellow Porsche. I don't know that I want to wait for Christmas."

I was grateful for Alice's talking, it kept me from having to explain myself to Bella.

I dropped Alice off at the mouth of our drive way and she glanced sharply at me as she stepped out of the car. _"Remember the plane tickets, it's going to be difficult to convince Charlie."_ She thought.

I nodded once. "See you later." I said and spun around to drive back to Forks as Alice disappeared. We were both silent, which I was for once grateful for, until we reached Charlie's house.

"Light homework load tonight." I said casually.

"Mmm." Bella mumbled in agreement.

"Do you suppose I'm allowed inside again?" I joked.

"Charlie didn't throw a fit when you picked me up for school." I nodded and followed Bella through the front door and up the stairs to her bedroom. While she shoved her bag in the corner and plopped down in front of her computer, I lounged lazily across her bed, staring out the window.

As she waited for her ancient computer to wheeze to life, her fingers began drumming on the wood of the desk. I was at her side in the next second, taking her hand in mine.

"Are we a little impatient today?" I asked.

She looked up at me, but seemed to jump slightly as she realized how close I was. I breathed over her face, feeling her body immediately relax under me. I smiled and moved my lips down to press against hers. The warmth on my lips was incredible, their softness, their taste. I molded my hard lips against her soft ones and lost myself for a moment, tangling my fingers in her hair to hold her face to mine. Her arms reached around my neck and I placed my hand on her back, pulling her gently in to my chest.

Gentle. Gentle. Gentle. I repeated it in my mind as the kiss continued far longer than I usually allowed. She shivered as the cold of my skin finally washed over her and as she felt me move slowly out of the kiss, she crushed herself into me, almost as unwilling as I was to separate. I felt her tongue run along the contours of my lips and the fire of the monster sparked in the pit of my stomach and I had to break apart.

I chuckled lightly as I moved away from her face, looking deeply into her chocolate brown eyes.

"Ah, Bella." I said with a sigh.

"I'd say I'm sorry." She said. "But I'm not."

"And I should feel sorry that you're not sorry, but I don't. Maybe I should go sit on the bed." I said with a laugh.

She sighed. "If you think that's necessary..."

I smiled and untangled myself from her, moving to the bed as she turned back to her computer. "Tell Renee I said hello." I added.

"Sure thing."

She scanned through the email she was replying to from her mother and I moved to the bookshelf to grab the plane tickets before standing silently behind her to read it. She responded appropriately to all of her mothers questions but paused as she read, "You haven't said anything about Jacob in a long time. What's he up to these days?"

I took a few deep breaths to calm the unnecessary anger that rose in my chest as I waited for her answer. How many times must I know she be thinking about him everyday?

"Jacob is fine, I guess. I don't see him much he spends most of his time with a pack of his friends down at La Push these days." Bella replied.

She added my greeting to Renee and hit send, then turned her computer off, turned in her chair and jumped as she realized I was standing behind her.

But by the time she'd turned around, my attention had already fallen on something else. Something black with stray wires hanging out of it that was tucked in her closet. It was the stereo Emmett had given her for her birthday, the perfect transition into the plane tickets.

"What did you do to this?" I asked in mock horror.

"It didn't want to come out of the dashboard." She said.

"So you felt the need to torture it?"

"You know how I am with tools. No pain was inflicted intentionally." I shook my head, my face falling with tragic realization. "You killed it."

She shrugged. "Oh, well."

I looked at her, my face harder than before. "It would hurt their feelings if they saw this." I said. "I guess it's a good thing that you've been on house arrest. I'll have to get another one in place before they notice."

"Thanks." She said. "But I don't need a fancy stereo."

"It's not for your sake that I"m going to replace it." I said, she sighed. I took the opportunity to jump into the plane ticket argument. "You didn't get much good out of your birthday presents last year." I pulled out the plane tickets and began fanning myself with them. She didn't say anything, the ghostly look appearing on her face that crept up every time she thought of our time apart. I moved on, hoping to have her realize it was not that past I wished to discuss, more the immediate future.

"Do you realize these are about to expire?" I asked, handing the plane tickets to her. She took them from me, read what they were and then looked at me casually.

"No. I'd forgotten all about them actually." She replied in a flat voice.

I smiled with careful enthusiasm. "Well, we still have a little more time. You've been liberated... and we have no plans this weekend, as you refuse to go to the prom with me." I smiled, knowing that Bella would be a lot easier to convince if she'd thought prom was the alternative to Jacksonville. "Why not celebrate your freedom this way?"

"By going to Florida?" She asked.

"You did say something about the continental U.S being allowable." She glared at me suspiciously. "Well?" I demanded. "Are we going or not?"

"Charlie will never allow it."

"Charlie can't keep you from visiting your mother. She still has primary custody."

"Nobody has custody of me." She said sharply. "I'm an adult." I smiled as she took the bait.

"Exactly."

She looked down at the tickets, deep in thought for a few seconds and then looked up at me. "Not this weekend." She sighed.

"Why not?"  
"I don't want to fight with Charlie. Not so soon after he's forgiven me."

"I think this weekend is perfect." I said, pulling my eyebrows together in frustration.

"Another time." She answered, shaking her head.

"You aren't the only one who's been trapped in this house, you know." I frowned.

"You can do anywhere you want." She said, unable to hide her suspicion.

"The outside world holds no interest for me without you."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm serious." I insisted.  
"Let's take the outside would slowly, all right? For example, we could start with a movie in Port Angeles."

"Never mind. We'll talk about it later." I groaned. If she wouldn't talk to Charlie about it, I would.

"There's nothing left to talk about." She insisted, I shrugged.  
"Okay, then, new subject." She said. "What did Alice see today at lunch."

That hit me like a hard punch in the gut. I'd hoped I'd been able to distract her enough from that that she'd forgotten. I couldn't be so lucky...

I kept my composure under her scrutinizing glare and shrugged. "She's been seeing Jasper in a strange place, somewhere in the southwest, she thinks near his former... family. But he has no conscious intentions to go back... It's got her worried."

"Oh." She replied as she bought my lie. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I didn't realize you'd noticed." I said. "It's probably nothing important, in any case."

I followed her downstairs, carrying her books as she cleared the table for us to do our homework. After I'd done my best to work with her on Calculus, I went to the kitchen with her, helping her make Charlie's dinner. The raw meat I understood, but the cream that she poured over was sour smelling.

Charlie came home at exactly six o'clock, and was in a good mood. That pleased me. It would be easier to get what I wanted if Charlie wouldn't be difficult.

I flipped through the news, updating myself on what was going on in Seattle as Bella and Charlie ate dinner.

"That was great, Bells." Charlie said when they had finished.

"I'm glad you liked it. How was work?" Bella asked.

As Charlie told Bella about how he and another officer had spent their day in the office playing cards, I scanned his thoughts for anything that may help me convince him to let Bella go to Jacksonville. He seemed to want to see Bella out and about, however, he was hoping it would be without me. Hopefully, I would be able to convince him without actually telling him that I'd be accompanying her... but I doubted it.

I heard Bella grabbing dishes off the table and rushed to the kitchen to help her with them.

Charlie sighed as my appearance had interrupted him trying to convince Bella to go down to La Push with him for the weekend for a party with the Clearwater's and The Uley's... wolves. I can't say I'd chosen that moment to appear in the kitchen by accident.

Charlie stood up and began his usual trek to the TV but I had other plans.  
"Charlie..." I said before he was out of the kitchen. He turned surprised that I had addressed him.

"Yeah?"

"Did Bella ever tell you that my parents gave her air plane tickets on her last birthday, so that she could visit Renee?"

Bella dropped the plate in her hands and it clattered to the ground, splashing everyone with soapy water.

"Bella?" Charlie asked, turning to her. She didn't look at her father as she reached down an picked up the plate.

"Yeah... they did." She said. Her pink cheeks flushed red.

Charlie swallowed loudly before he continued with me. "No, she never mentioned it." He said.

"Hmm." I said as I slowly wiped the water from a plate with a towel.

"Was there a reason you brought it up?" Charlie asked, not disguising the volatileness in his voice.

I shrugged. "They're about to expire. I think it might hurt Esme's feelings if Bella doesn't use her gift. Not that she'd say anything..."

Bella stared up at me with her mouth open but I continued to stare down at the dish in my hand.

"It's probably a good idea for you to visit you mom, Bella. She'd love that. I'm surprised you didn't say anything about this, though."

"I forgot." She admitted.

"You forgot that someone gave you plane tickets?" Charlie said skeptically.

"Mmm." She muttered, turning back to the sink.

"I noticed that you said _they're _about to expire, Edward. How many tickets did your parents give her?"

"Just one for her..." I said. "And one for me." Bella dropped the plate again.

"That's out of the question!" Charlie shouted, his face morphing from bright red to a deep plum.

"Why?" I asked, feigning innocent surprise. "You just said it was a good idea for her to see her mother."

He looked away from me and down at Bella, towering over her, shouting. "You're not going anywhere with him, young lady!"

Bella turned around from the sink, the pink of embarrassment in her cheeks, changing to the red of anger. "I'm not a child, Dad!" She shouted. "And I'm not grounded anymore, remember?"

"Oh yes, you are. Starting now!" He countered.

"For what?"

"Because I said so!"

"Do I need to remind you that I'm a legal adult, Charlie?"

"This is my house--- you follow my rules!"

The red in Bella's face subsided a little as her eyes changed from blazing fire to cool ice in a second. "If that's how you want it. Do you want me to move out tonight? Or can I have a few days to pack?"

Charlie fumed and Bella broke under his anger. I saw the guilt wash over her face and her eyes began to warm with compromise.

"I"ll do my time without complaining when I've done something wrong, Dad, but I'm not going to put up with your prejudices." She said calmly after taking a deep breath.

Charlie tried to come up with something to say but muttered incoherent phrases instead. Bella continued.

"Now, I know that you have know I have every right to see mom for the weekend. You can't honestly tell me you'd object to the plan if I was going with Alice or Angela."

"Girls." Charlie grunted, as if it were only a father protecting the naivety of a daughter that kept him from wanting me to escort Bella to Florida.

"Would it bother you if I took Jacob?" She asked. I hadn't been prepared for that and the anger that his name incited in me rose at an alarmingly uncontrollable rate. I snapped my teeth together.

"Yes." Charlie said after a moment of composure. "That would bother me."

"You're a rotten liar, Dad." Bella said.

"Bella---" he pleaded.

"It's not like I'm headed off to Vegas to be a showgirl or anything. I'm going to see Mom... She's just as much my parental authority as you are." Charlie rolled his eyes and threw a withering look at Bella.

"Are you implying something about Mom's ability to look after me?" Bella asked. "You'd better hope I don't mention this to her." She threatened.

"You'd better not." Charlie said. "I'm not happy about this, Bella."

"There's no reason for you to be upset."

Charlie rolled his eyes and Bella relaxed. I could see in Charlie's thoughts that he had nothing left. No ammo to fuel the fight. Bella was right, I was right.. he would have to let her go.

Bella pulled the plug from the sink, draining the filthy dish water and turned back to Charlie. "So my homework is done, your dinner is done, the dishes are done and I'm not grounded. I'm going out. I'll be back before ten thirty."

"Where are you going?" Charlie asked.

"I'm not sure... I'll keep it withing a ten mile radius, though. Okay?"

Charlie grunted and then stormed out of the room, muttering about how I was a bad influence and he should throw me out the door. I smiled and looked down at Bella.

"We're going out?" I asked enthusiastically.

"Yes. I think I'd like to speak to you ALONE." Bella said with a glower. I smiled at the pink flush that remained in her cheeks. She grabbed my hand and lead me to my Volvo, I willingly allowed her to pull me along.

"What was that?" she demanded once I had shut the driver side door.

"I know you want to see your mother, Bella- You've been talking about her in your sleep. Worrying actually."

"I have?" It was the truth... sort of.

I nodded. "But clearly you were too much of a coward to deal with Charlie, so I interceded on your behalf."

"Interceded? You threw me to the sharks!" She exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes at her exaggeration. "I don't think you were in any danger."

"I told you I didn't want to fight with Charlie."

"Nobody said you had to."

"I can't help myself. When he gets all bossy like that-- my natural teenage instincts overpower me."

I laughed. "Well that's not my fault." She was so human.

"Does this sudden urge to see Florida have anything to do with the party at Billy's place?" She asked suspiciously.

The muscles in my jaw tightened and I spoke through closed teeth. "Nothing at all. It wouldn't matter if you were here or on the other side of the world... you still wouldn't be going." I sighed as I heard her teeth grind together like a child who didn't get her way. I needed a lighter subject.

"So what do you want to do tonight?" I asked.

"Can we go to your house? I haven't seen Esme in so long."

I smiled. "She'll like that. Especially when she hears what we're doing this weekend."

We weren't at my house long. Bella had sat and talked with Esme and Carlisle for a while and watched Alice and I play a game of Chess and then tried to take on Emmett. Alice took her upstairs and began going through Esme's "old" clothes in the hopes of finding Bella something acceptable to wear to school in the morning. That's when I decided it was time to get her home. I may have won the weekend, but it was best not to push Charlie's rules before we were on the plane.

I pulled up to the house and immediately had to stifle a laugh.

_"Don't be a chicken... it's your responsibility as a parent. She's in an adult relationship, she needs to know the truth. He's going to try to pressure her and a weekend in another state would seem like the perfect time, you have to tell her what dogs men really are. They only have one thing on their mind. He only has ONE thing on his mind and he's not getting it from MY daughter..."_

"You'd better not come inside..." Bella said. "It will only make things worse."  
"His thoughts are relatively calm." I teased, trying to keep the smile from my lips.

"I'll see you later." She muttered. I laughed and kissed her on the top of her head.

"I'll be back when Charlie's snoring." I promised.

I watched her walk through the door and pulled out of the driveway in time to hear Charlie ask Bella to join him in the living room.

I decided it was dark enough for me to risk a little speed. I turned my lights off and flew down the highway, exhilarated by the speed. I was planning on dropping off my keys in my room and then making the run back to Bella's house to wait in the trees for Charlie's snores but my plans changed when my phone rang.

"You're not going to believe what she's doing..." Alice said when I answered. But I was close enough to the house that I didn't need to wait for an explanation, I could hear it in her thoughts.

Jacob.

I growled threw my foot down on the accelerator, stopping only when my Volvo cleared the garage. When I was in park, I threw open the door so hard I nearly took the door off, and I sprinted off into the light drizzling rain towards her house. How could she do this? Wait until I was gone and sneak off down to La Push. I felt the betrayal but I also felt the jealousy. This proved it, when I wasn't around... she thought of him. Anger boiled in my blood and I used it to push more speed out of the ground.

I made it to Bella's house in record time. I wrenched open the hood of her truck and unplugged the starter, pulling it out of the car.

"Thanks, Dad." I heard Bella call from inside the house. I moved silently through the darkness, opened the passenger door to the Chevy and creeped inside. If I wasn't so fumingly angry, I would have laughed. Bella was walking across the lawn towards her truck like a character in a bad spy movie. Her head darted back and forth as she peered into the darkness, looking for any kind of movement. Unfortunately, the rain was blocking out the moon and her human eyes were useless in the pitch black of the night.

She reached her hands blindly out in front of her and felt her way along the edge of her truck until she found the handle. Her keys fumbled around the wheel a few times until she was able to find the ignition. She turned her key...

Click, Click, Click.

Again

Click, Click, Click.

I spun the starter in my hand and the movement caught her attention.

"GAH!" She yelled, shoving her body against the drivers door when she realized she was not alone. Her breathing was sharp with panic until her eyes adjusted enough for her to recognize me in the darkness.

"Alice called." I muttered. "She got nervous when your future rather abruptly disappeared five minutes ago."

Bella didn't say anything.

"Because she can't see the wolves, you know. Had you forgotten that? When you decide to mingle your fate with theirs, you disappear too. You couldn't know that part, I realize that. But can you understand why that might make me a little... anxious?"

Silence.

"We're not sure why this is." I continued. "Some natural defense they're born with? That doesn't seem entirely likely, since I haven't had any trouble reading their thoughts. The Black's at least. Carlisle theorizes that it's because their lives are so ruled by their transformations. It's more an involuntary reaction than a decision. Utterly unpredictable, and it changes everything about them. In that instant when they shift from one form to the other, they don't really even exist. The future can't hold them..."

Still she said nothing.

"I'll put your car back together in time for school, in case you'd like to drive yourself." I said assuringly. She pulled her keys from the engine, opened the door and climbed out of the truck.

"Shut your window if you want me to stay away tonight. I'll understand." I said, and she slammed the door. I watched her stomp up to the house and listened. When I was sure she wouldn't turn around I moved quickly to her hood, replaced the starter, then slinked to the side of her house hoping to catch her shadow as she made it to her room.

Her window slammed shut so hard the glass quivered. Ouch, that hurt a little. I turned around, ego bruised and feelings hurt until I heard the groan of the metal frame and turned to see the window opened as wide as it would go.


	4. Chapter 3 Motives

Chapter 3

Bella didn't say much on the way home from the airport and it worried me slightly. She seemed to have had a pleasant weekend with Renee, I figured she'd be happily recalling the whole weekend as we drove the wet and dreary highway from Seattle to Forks. I'd spent the whole weekend indoors, avoiding the omnipresent sunlight at all costs. Fortunately, Renee had bought my term paper excuse, probably because it meant more alone time with Bella. I didn't complain, I was happy to have successfully removed her from Forks without her knowing about Victoria.

Alice had called me the night she came and told me ever detail of what had happened. It seemed that Victoria must have some gift for avoiding capture because she was cornered on both sides, my family to the west, the wolves to the east but she'd still managed to get away. I wish I could've found a way to blame it on Jacob and his pack of dogs but in reality, it had been my family that gotten in the way, not the other way around.

I endured the silence all the way until we passed the "Welcome to Forks" sign. "You've been very quiet." I noted. "Did the plane make you sick?"

She shook her head slowly. "No, I"m okay."  
"Are you sad to leave?"

"More relieved than sad, I think." She admitted. I felt one of my eyebrows raise. I thought she'd enjoyed herself this weekend, relief was not something I was prepared to deal with as we drove back from her beloved sun to the clouds and rain.

She noticed my reaction and sighed. "Renee is so much more... perceptive than Charlie in some ways. I was making me jumpy."

I laughed. "Your mother has a very interesting mind. Almost childlike, but very insightful. She sees things differently than other people."

She nodded her head slightly and continued with her previous silent state. I left her to her thoughts until I pulled in the driveway in front of Charlie's house.

"We're home, Sleeping Beauty." I said, brushing my fingers across her cheek. "Time to awake."

She jumped a little as my cold hands brought her into the present. Charlie moved the curtain in the living room to the side to get a glimpse of my car in the driveway.

_"They're home!"_ he thought excitedly, though I knew the excitement was only for Bella.

Bella watched the yellow light of the living room disappear as the curtain closed and sighed.

_"Jacob will be glad she's home. Been calling all day. 'bout time those two re-connected. I knew he'd call. There's something special between those two. Natural. Unlike Edward..."_

I stiffened at Charlie's thoughts pouring across the yard. Jacob had decided to end his end of the embargo... Fine. It didn't matter really. Bella still wouldn't see him.

"How bad?" Bella asked nervously as she saw my stiff expression.

"Charlie's not going to be difficult." I said smiling. "He missed you." Her eyes narrowed, but I gave her no further explanation. I opened her door and helped her onto the slippery pavement. She turned and reached for her bag but snagged it before she got there.

"Edward, I can carry my own bag." She protested.

"I've got it." I smiled. She rolled her eyes and walked across the damp, marshy grass. I'd planned on leaving her with Charlie and meeting my family to hear more about Victoria's visit, but now that Jacob was in the picture, I wasn't leaving. Probably not for the rest of the night.

We hadn't even gotten to the door before Charlie swung it open. "Welcome home, kid! How was Jacksonville?"

"Moist." Bella said resentfully. "And buggy." She scratched a bite on her left arm and I held my breath in case she broke the skin.

"So Renee didn't sell you on the University of Florida?" Charlie teased.

"She tried. But I'd rather drink water than inhale it."

Charlie's eyes turned unwillingly to me. "Did you have a nice time?" He asked flatly.

"Yes, Renee was very hospitable." I answered politely.

"That's um... good." Charlie said eager to no longer be required to address me. "Glad you had fun." He turned to Bella and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.

"Impressive." Bella whispered, forgetting that I could hear her heartbeat let alone her voice. Charlie laughed.

"I really missed you, Bells. The food around here sucks when you're gone."

"I'll get on it." She said, maneuvering away from Charlie towards the kitchen. His mind flicked back to the phone, it was coming.

"Would you call Jacob first?" He asked with a little too much enthusiasm in his voice. Of course, anything but pure loathing was to much in my opinion. "He's been bugging me every five minutes since six o'clock this morning. I promised I'd have you call him before you even unpacked."

"Jacob wants to talk to me?" Bella asked. Her quickened heartbeat was not lost on me, my body froze with tension.

"Pretty bad, I'd say. He wouldn't tell me what it was about- just said it was important." Charlie smiled. And then, as though he was listening to the conversation, the phone rang. My fingers clenched into hard fists.

"That's him again, I'd bet my next paycheck." Charlie muttered.

"I'll get it." Bella said, running off into the kitchen. Charlie shot a smug smile at me as I followed after Bella and he stalked off into the living room.

_"Take a good look around boy, cause your days in this house are numbered. Ha!"_

Bella snagged the phone off the wall just as I rounded the corner. "Hello?"  
"You're back." Jacob's rough, unappealing voice came from the other end of the receiver.

Bella smiled and had to cough back a few tears before answering him, I rolled my eyes, plopped down in the kitchen chair and tried my best not to break anything.

"Yes." Bella said.

"Why didn't you call me?" Jacob demanded. It was getting hard to compose myself. I tried not to listen, to focus on something else... for Bella's sake.

"Because I've been in the house for exactly four seconds and your call interrupted Charlie telling me that you called."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Sure. Now, why are you harassing Charlie?"

"I need to talk to you... You going to school tomorrow?" I stiffened a minute degree.

"Of course I am," Bella said. "Why wouldn't I?"  
"I dunno, just curious."

"So what did you want to talk about, Jake?"

"Uh... Nothing really, I guess. I... wanted to hear your voice."

"Yeah, I know. I'm SO glad you called me, Jake. I..."

"I have to go." Jake interrupted.

"What?"

"I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"But Jake-"

Dial tone.

I started breathing again. My obsessive rage with Jacob wasn't healthy, and it wasn't safe for Bella. Why couldn't she just get over him and focus on more important things. Like the Dartmouth application or cleaning the lint out of the dryer screen. Really anything was more important than... that.

"That was short." Bella said with real disappointment.

"Is everything alright?" I asked, though I'd heard the entire conversation. She turned to me and frowned.

"I don't know. I wonder what that was about." She seemed slightly irritated, I liked that.

"Your guess is probably better than mine." I said, smiling at the newness of the phrase. I normally had an uncanny ability to decipher the meaning behind peoples actions... you might call it a gift.

"Mmm..." She murmured. She moved around the kitchen preparing Charlie's dinner, pulling a pan out of the cabinet and a pound of hamburger out of the freezer. I could tell she was still thinking about Jacob... it irritated me.

As she walked from the freezer to the counter, she suddenly froze and the block of frozen meat fell out of her hands. I reached out and snatched it before it hit the ground and set it on the counter before moving to wrap my arms around her.

"What's wrong?" I whispered soothingly in her ear. She shook her head and continued staring into nothing. "Bella?" I asked anxiously, shaking her slightly. I'd dealt with the silence in the car but it worried me that she still wasn't talking and now she was spacing out. What was wrong with her? Was she sick, upset, angry?

"I think... I think he was checking... Checking to make sure. That I'm human I mean." My muscles tightened and I hissed. It was bad enough that I knew Bella was going to be changed, did I have to have the dog breathing down my neck too? And did he honestly think Carlisle would change her in Forks? That I would allow her to be changed anywhere other than the deepest wildernesses of Alaska? After college of course, I'd find away to convince Carlisle.

"We'll have to leave." Bella whispered. "Before. So that it doesn't break the treaty. We won't ever be able to come back." Charlie got up from his recliner and began walking towards the kitchen. I considered releasing Bella but decided against it in the end. She was upset, and I wanted to comfort her... even if I was still fuming over the Jacob call.

I nodded slowly and hugged her closer, wondering if she was finally understanding the commitment she was making by selling her soul. "I know."

"Ahem." Charlie coughed from behind us. Bella jumped and pulled herself away from my hold. I sighed angrily and moved to lean against the kitchen counter.

"If you don't want to make dinner, I can call for a pizza." Charlie said, hopeful for some reason.

"No, that's okay." Bella assured him. "I'm already started." Charlie agreed and stood in the doorway for the remainder of Bella's dinner preparation, watching me. When she had Charlie's spaghetti on the table, I decided to not only excuse myself from dinner but I decided to go home. I drove down the familiar highway and into the garage, Rosalie's legs were sticking out from under her car and Emmett sat on the hood.

He waved but I ignored him, walking past them into the house. Alice was sitting in the kitchen but I walked past her, ignoring everyone of my family members until I got upstairs, dropped my bag, changed into new clothes and came back down to the kitchen. I threw Alice my keys.

"Pick me up at Bella's house tomorrow morning. I've got things to...watch." I said. She took my keys and agreed but her thoughts were suspicious. I walked back out to the garage. Emmett looked at me warily, as if he was afraid I'd snap at him.

"Do you have plans tonight?" I asked.

"No." He said.

"I'm going to the tree line behind Bella's house. I want to remind the wolves of Cullen territory." Emmett's face broke into a wide smile.

"Yes!" He said. I held out an arm, we aren't fighting. I just want to make sure those dogs don't come around Bella tonight.. or tomorrow morning.

We ran down the drive and down the familiar route to Bella's house. Emmett climbed a tree on the west end of her house while I climbed one parallel with Bella's window. I watched her light go out as she crawled into bed and we waited.

The sun rose uneventfully and Alice arrived in front of Bella's house at exactly 7:20 the next morning. I sprinted to her, opening the door for her as she stepped out. Her face turned down in a frown as she already knew what I was going to ask her to do.

"Would you mind run.." I began.

"Running to school to give you and Bella some privacy." She finished. "Yeah, I know... but if my hair gets ruined in this rain, so help me I'll..."  
"Thanks." I said quickly and I heard Bella's footsteps coming down the stairs. "See you at school." Alice took off with Emmett right as Bella opened the front door. I moved around the car and held open the passenger door for her. She climbed in and turned to the backseat and frowned.

"That's weird." She said. "I thought I saw Alice."

"She had to do something at home before school started... sudden vision. It'll be faster for her to run." I explained.

"Oh." She fastened her seatbelt and I drove towards school. Finally, Bella decided she wanted to talk about the weekend. She told me how good it had felt to see Renee and how excited she was to see her for graduation. I laughed with her as she told me about the rest of her night last night, just happy to see her smile.

_"Ugh.. Vampire smell. He's got to be getting close. Wait, yeah, that's Bella. He's got to be alone, that should be better. I don't need the physic trying to tell me what happened that night. They know they broke the line.."_

My muscles clenched and I fought to keep my fists from breaking the fragile steering wheel. I gritted my teeth together. "If I asked you to do something, would you trust me?" I asked.

Bella's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "That depends."

I pulled into the parking lot and could finally see him, leaning against his motorcycle only a few spaces from where I normally parked, on the sidewalk.

"I was afraid you would say that." I said.

"What do you want me to do, Edward?" Bella asked, still oblivious to her taboo best friend only a hundred feet away from us.

"I want you to stay in the car." I said as I shifted into park and cut the engine. I looked into her eyes in an effort to keep her from seeing Jacob.

_"What's he doing?" _Jacob thought. _"I need to talk to you Bloodsucker... I know you hear me." _

My muscles clenched but I tried to hide it from Bella. "I want you to wait here until I come back for you."

"But... why?" Bella asked, though she turned her head and answered her own question. "Oh."

"You jumped to the wrong conclusion last night." I explained. "He asked about school because he know that I would be where you were. He was looking for a safe place to talk to me. A place with witnesses."

She turned her head from the window and stared at me determinately. "I'm not staying in the car." I groaned.

"Of course not. Well, let's get this over with." I moved around the car and helped Bella to her feet, Jacob's eyes narrowed when he saw me touch her, so I grabbed her hand as we walked over to him. His emotionless face that was Sam, the pack leader's trade mark, hardened. I stared back at him smugly.

I stopped out of arms reach in front of Jacob but still felt uncomfortable having Bella in such close radius to him. If he transformed, he would be close enough to reach her. I pulled my hand backwards, moving to conceal most of her behind my body.

"You could have called us." I said coldly.

"Sorry." Jacob answered with the same amount of hostility. "I don't have any leeches on my speed dial."

"You could have reached me at Bella's house, of course." I wanted to smile as I watched the desired effect of my words take hold on Jacob's emotions. His jaw tightened and the muscles in his over sized arms flexed.

"This is hardly the place, Jacob. Could we discuss this later?"

"Sure, sure." He snorted. "I'll stop by your crypt after school. What's wrong with now?" I looked around the parking lot, purposefully pointing out each of the students with my eyes.

"I already know what you came to say, Message delivered. Consider us warned." I said in a low voice, and then I glanced down at Bella worriedly, she wouldn't know what I meant and I knew she would jump to the worst conclusion.

"Warned?" She asked. "What are you talking about?"

"You didn't tell her?" Jacob asked disbelievingly. "What? Were you afraid she'd take our side?" I didn't have the time or desire to deal with this right now. Emmett stepped over the line, it wasn't that big of a deal, it was an accident. Their childish concerns were of little consequence for me, I had a murderous vampire out to avenge her lover by killing the only reason for my existence. A two foot margin of land that was resulting in a border dispute was infantile and ridiculous.

"Please drop it, Jacob."

"Why?" He challenged.

"What don't I know? Edward?" Bella asked, tugging at my sleeve. I ignored her and glared at Jacob. If he dared to blow this up in front of Bella, I'd lunge at his throat. I didn't care who could see now. My body was almost shaking with fury.

"Jake?" Bella asked.

"He didn't tell you that his big... brother crossed the line Saturday night?" he said raising an eyebrow. Then he turned his glare back to me. "Paul was totally justified in-"

"It was no man's land!" I hissed. If this was going to turn into an argument, I refused to allow him to put everything on Emmett.

"Was not!" He yelled back, taking a step closer and tensing his muscles. His hands were beginning to tremble and his breathing became shallow. I erased the anger from my face in an effort to calm him down. If he phased here...

"Emmet and Paul?" Bella shrieked. "What happened? Were they fighting? Why? Did Paul get hurt?"

I rubbed my thumb over the top of Bella's hand soothingly. "No one fought." I said quietly. "No one got hurt. Don't be anxious."

Jacob's face was incredulous. "You didn't tell her anything at all, did you? Is that why you took her away? So she wouldn't know that-"

"Leave now." I hissed. I could feel myself losing control. All composure had left my face and my lips had curled back over my teeth, bared for attack. I glared at him threateningly, staring with pure loathing.

"Why haven't you told her?" Jacob asked without moving. There was tense silence as we stared at each other challengingly. The thoughts of the other students were eager and excited but I had no interest in them. I could feel Bella behind me, he warm hand resting gently on my arm. Until the realization of Jacob's words hit her and her body tensed and her breathing came fast a shallow.

I turned the slightest degree to conceal her more from Jacob, holding her tightly and comfortingly. I was afraid she might start to hyperventilate.

"She came back for me." Bella choked.

"It's fine." I said soothingly, running my fingers through her hair. "It's fine. I'll never let her get close to you, it's fine."

I turned back to face Jacob but stepped slightly to the left to maintain Bella's secure position behind me. "Does that answer your question, mongrel?  
"You don't think Bella has the right to know?" Jacob hissed. "It's her life."

I spoke quietly. Coldly. Deadly. "Why should she be frightened when she was never in danger?"

"Better frightened than lied to."

Bella was shaking behind me, so I turned to hold her again, wiping tears away from her cheeks. "Do you really think hurting her is better than protecting her?" I said. My voice was not venomous, it was full of pain and worry.

"She's tougher than you think... And she's been through worse." Jacob said pointedly. His mind ran over the weeks that I had been absent from Bella. Her face, the empty, ghostly face that had been branded on her from the moment I'd abandoned her in the forest. I saw her, crumpled in on herself, screaming... I cringed under Jacob's memories.

"That's funny." Jacob said with a laugh as he continued to remember the Bella I'd ruined.

"What are you doing to him?" Bella shrieked.

"It's nothing, Bella." I said sternly. "Jacob just has a good memory, that's all." Jacob grinned as I winced at his last memory.

"Stop it! Whatever you're doing."

Jacob looked up to her and shrugged. "Sure, if you want. It's his own fault if he doesn't like the things I remember, though."

"_Damn Quileute kids, cutting school and causing a ruckus on my campus. _Who's_ that over there with him? Cullen? What in the world..."_

"The principal is on his way to discourage loitering on school property." I said. "Let's get you to English, Bella, so you're not involved."

"Overprotective, isn't he." Jacob sneered. "A little trouble makes life fun. Let me guess, you're not allowed to have fun, are you?" I glowered at him.

"Shut up, Jake." Bella said. He laughed.

"That sounds like a no. Hey, if you ever feel like having a life again, you could come see me. I've still got your motorcycle in my garage."

I tensed and controlled a lunge at his taunt. "You were supposed to sell that. You promised Charlie that you would." Bella said.

"Yeah, right. Like I would do that. It belongs to you, not me. Anyway, I'll hold on to it until you want it back."

"Jake..." Bella began.

"I think I might have been wrong before, you know, about not being able to be friends. Maybe we could manage it, on my side of the line. Come see me." He said.

I tightened my arms around Bella and froze them there, but managed to keep my face calm and composed.

"I, er, I don't know about that, Jake."

Jacobs face fell as mine curved into a smile. "I miss you everyday, Bella. It's not the same without you."

"I know and I'm sorry Jake, I just..."

Jacob shoot his head. "I know. Doesn't matter, right? I guess I'll survive or something. Who needs friends?" I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, get to class." Mr. Greene's stern voice came at last. "Move along, Mr. Crowley." Bella's head turned towards the approaching voice and then turned back to Jacob.

"Get to school, Jake."

I released Bella from my arms but kept her hand and used it to pull her behind me again. The principal pushed his way through the crowd around us.

"I mean it, detention for anyone who's still standing here when I turn around again. Ah, Mr. Cullen. Do we have a problem here?"

I smiled. "Not at all, Mr. Greene." I said pleasantly. "We were just on our way to class."

"Excellent." He replied. "I don't seem to recognize your friend. Are you a new student here?"

Jacob smirked. "Nope."

"Then I suggest you remove yourself from school property at once, young man, before I call the police."

Jacob's smile stretched into a broad grin as he pictured Charlie showing up to arrest him. "Yes, sir." He said with a sarcastic military salute. He climbed onto the motorcycle, kicked it to life and spun out of the parking lot, roaring his way back onto the highway.

The principal turned back to me. "Mr. Cullen, I expect you to ask your friend to refrain from trespassing again."

"He's no friend of mine, Mr. Greene." I assured him. "But I'll pass along the warning."

His lips pursed. He normally would not have been tolerant of a student speaking to him in anything but an entirely subordinate manner, but I was a model student. He had to side with me.

"I see. If you're worried about any trouble, I'd be happy to-"

I almost laughed. "There's nothing to worry about, Mr. Greene. There won't be anymore trouble."

"I hope that's correct. Well, then. On to class. You, too Miss Swan." He said. I nodded and pulled Bella's hand in the direction of the English building. When were were outside of the door under the awning I turned and looked into her eyes.

"Do you feel well enough to go to class?"

"Yes." She whispered. I took her by the hand, seeing Alice's nervous face out of the corner of my eye and led her into the room. We were late for class, but thankfully Mr. Berry didn't interrupt the lecture while we took our seats. I sat down and half listened to the Frost poem Mr. Berry was reciting, and half listened to Bella's heartbeat, trying to judge her anxiety. She shifted in her chair and pulled out a blank sheet of paper and slowly scribbled a note on it for me.

She passed it to me and I read it.

"What happened? Tell me everything. And screw the protecting me crap, please."

I sighed and picked up a pen, passing it back to her in only thirty seconds.

"Alice saw that Victoria was coming back, I took you out of town merely as a precaution- there was never a chance that she would have gotten anywhere close to you. Emmett and Jasper very nearly had her, but Victoria seems to have some instinct for evasion. She escaped right down the Quileute boundary line as if she were reading it from a map. It didn't help that Alice's abilities were nullified by the Quileutes' involvement. TO be fair, the Quileutes might have had her, too, if we hadn't gotten in the way. The big gray one thought Emmett was over the line and he got defensive. Of course Rosalie reacted to that, and everyone left the chase to protect their companions. Carlisle and Jasper got things calmed down before it got out of hand. But by then, Victoria had slipped away. That's everything."

Bella shuddered as she read what I wrote and picked up her pen to scribble another note.

"What about Charlie? She could have been after him."

I shook my head, but Bella wasn't satisfied. She began writing again as I quickly copied everything Mr. Berry was saying. He was starting to notice we weren't paying attention.

"You can't konw that she wans't thinking that, because you weren't here. Florida was a baad idea."

I took the paper out from under her hand. How could she think I would leave her when Victoria was still on the loose.

"I wasn't about to sent you off alone. With your bad luck not even the black box would survive."

She rolled her eyes and started writing again.

"So let's say my bad luck did crash the plane. What exactly were you going to do about it?"

I smiled.

"Why is the plane crashing?"

"The pilots are passed out drunk."

"Easy. I'd fly the plane."

She rolled her eyes.

"Both engines have exploded and we're falling in a death spiral toward the earth."

"I'd wait till we were close enough to the ground, get a good grip on you, kick out the wall and jump. Then I'd run you back to the scene of the accident and we'd stumble around like the two luckiest survivors in history."

She rolled her eyes at me. "What?" I whispered back. She shook her head.

"Nothing." She mouthed and showed me the paper again.

"You will tell me next time."

I stared into her determined eyes for a long second. Her color had drained and there were still tears in her eyes. I sighed and nodded, looking down at the table.

"Thanks." She scribbled. I heard Mr. Berry's footsteps approaching the table. I reached out and grabbed the paper and tucked it into my jacket in the next second.

"Is that something you'd like to share there, Mr. Cullen?"

I looked up and held out the notes I'd scribbled down while Bella was writing. "My notes?" I asked innocently.

He glanced over them, frowned and walked away.


	5. Chapter 4 Deceived

Chapter 4

Friday night, I took Bella to my house to spend some time with my family before we left on a hunting trip for the weekend. I hated having to leave her behind every time we went hunting, I could tell it hurt her and the deep scars of abandonment I'd given her when I'd left her last year ached again. On top of her loneliness, she was also worried. She hadn't recovered from the news Jacob had given her and was more eager than ever to be changed.

"I just think it's dangerous!" She said to Carlisle.

"There are seven of us, Bella. And with Alice on our side, I don't think Victoria's going to catch us off guard. I think it's important, for Charlie's sake, that we stick with the original plan."

"We'd never allow anything to happen to you, sweetheart." Esme added assuringly. "You know that. Please don't be anxious."

She let out a huff of frustration and glared at me as if I was the one from keeping Carlisle from changing her that very minute. If I had any say in when Carlisle was changing her, it would be many years from now, if ever.

She walked out of the kitchen and flopped on the couch, sighing exaggeratedly, I sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her.

"What's wrong?" Alice asked.

"Carlisle just won't see reason." Bella said. "Victoria's coming and I'm just sitting around all vulnerable and delicious waiting for her."

"I'm really glad Edward didn't kill you." Emmett said with a laugh, I glared. "Everything's so much more fun with you around."

Alice rolled her eyes. "I'm offended. You're not honestly worried about this, are you?"

"If it's no big deal then why did Edward drag me to Florida?" Bella pointed out.

Alice looked at me as she spoke. "Haven't you noticed yet, Bella, that Edward is just the teeniest bit prone to over reaction?"

I rolled my eyes as I felt Jasper move a wave of calmness in Bella's direction. Rosalie sat in the corner glowering, mostly because Emmett actually said he was glad that Bella was around.

After Bella felt reassured that she was perfectly safe, mostly due to Jasper's interference, I decided to take her home. Alice stopped us right before we walked through the door with a last warning for Bella.

"I'm staying close to home to hunt. I'll only be fifteen minutes away if you need me. I'll keep an eye out for trouble."

_"In other words, don't try anything stupid just because Edward isn't around."_ she thought with a smile. I pulled her through the door and walked hand and hand with her to the car.

When she disappeared through the front door of Charlie's house, I scaled the siding and moved silently through her window. I was laying on her bed flipping through her copy of Wuthering Heights when she finally came to bed.

"I just don't see why Carlisle can't see that all of this preparation is unnecessary. Sure, you all COULD protect me from Victoria, but why should you when all that needs to happen is for me to change. I need to think of something to say to convince him to do it sooner. What do you think?"

"That's between you and Carlisle." I said and then smiled, "Of course, you know that I'm willing to make it between you and me at any time that you wish. You know my condition."

"Ugh." She said and wrapped herself tighter in her blankets. She stared at the ceiling, looking positively miserable.

I stared down at her, conflict waring visibly on my face. "I really don't have to go so far away." I told her. "I can stay and hunt with Alice."

She shook her head. "Go have fun. Bag a few mountain lions for me." she said with a feeble smile. I took a couple of deep breaths and held her next to me until I felt her breathing grow slow and even. I only held her for a few hours before Emmett and Jasper's voice floated up through the open window.

"Alright, Edward." Emmett sneered. "That's long enough, lets go."

I sighed and moved Bella as gently as I could so I wouldn't wake her. When I tucked the blankets around her I moved quickly to her desk and took a pen and a piece of paper.

"I'll be back so soon you won't have time to miss me. Look after my heart- I've left it with you."

When I'd finished with my note I placed it on the pillow beside Bella's head, Kissed her on the forehead and disappeared out the window. Carlisle was waiting for us in Emmett's jeep down the street and I raced my brother's to it for front seat. Jasper got there first, which was unusual, I was the fastest.

"You're losing your touch, Edward. Growing soft spending all those nights watching Bella sleep." Jasper teased.

I smiled at him. "I like soft."

"Well see about that." Emmett grinned, punching me, hard, in the arm. "Slug Bug, red." I rubbed my arm where Emmett had hit me, glad I couldn't bruise and laughed.

"That's how you want to play it huh?" I asked, "You're on."

Carlisle flew down the highway while Emmett, Jasper and I found reasons to punch each other. It started off with slug bug, then out of state license plates, then red cars... blue cars... white cars... trees. When we started hitting each other for lines on the road, Carlisle told us to stop, but not before he got a good one on Jasper.

By mid-morning we were crossing into Oregon. There was a mountain lion problem in California and my family thought it was only our patriotic duty to lend our services. And if Jasper had to hunt down one more white tailed deer, he was going to start going after humans.

We'd almost gotten to Portland when my phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered when I recognized Alice's number.

"You're NOT going to BELIEVE how ABSOLUTELY STUPID she is!" Alice yelled into the phone. "I mean I'd EXPECT it if she didn't KNOW I was this close but SERIOUSLY!"

"What're you talking about, Alice?" I asked.

"I'm talking about how STUPID YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS!"

"What do you mean?" I asked urgently, my body suddenly tensed.

"RECKLACE, IRRESPONSIBLE, CARELESS AND JUST PLAIN STUPID!"

"ALICE!" I yelled through her tirade. "What's wrong with Bella?"

"Oh." She said. "Little miss thinks she can do what ever she pleases without any regard to our feelings or her own personal safety decided to take a trip down to La Push to see that DOG!"

"WHAT?!" I yelled, Carlisle slammed on the breaks. "Why didn't you stop her?"

"I didn't have time!" Alice exclaimed. "I saw her go to work and then not 10 minutes later I had a vision of her jumping into her truck and hauling down the highway to La Push. I got there just in time to see her cross that stupid line!"

"What about now?" I asked.

"I can't see anything. She's with that flea bag mongrel and I can't see her around him!"

"I'm coming home." I said, and I closed my phone. Carlisle moved to turn the car around but I stopped him.

"There's no sense in all of us missing out on the hunting trip, I'll get there faster on foot anyway."

"No way." Emmett said. "It won't be any fun without you. We can go next weekend."

"That's ridiculous." I said, jumping out of the car. "I'll see you guys tomorrow night. Catch a big one for me." I yelled over my shoulder. As I turned away from the car my focus rested entirely on the road and how much speed I could coax out of my legs.

How could she do this? I trusted her and the moment I showed that, she betrayed me. Hadn't I convinced her of how important it was that she stay away from Jacob the last time she tried to sneak off to La Push. Didn't she realize how important she was to me at all?

That's when I realized that there could be a chance I would get home and it would be too late. She was already over the border, the only thing I was going to accomplish by getting home now was seeing her get safely across that line or not... I sped up. If I could reach my gift out enough to hear Jacob or anyone who was in line sight of Bella, I could watch her. If anything, and I meant anything that could possibly endanger Bella happened then treaty or no treaty I was crossing the line. And if she was already hurt or worse...

I swallowed hard.

If she didn't make it back over that line, I'd kill their entire pack. No, their entire tribe! I'd erase the memory of the Quileute people from the minds of everyone. Maybe then I wouldn't even have to go to Volterra to seek peace, it would come to me.

The more I thought about it the more real it was becoming to me. I began to actually believe that she wasn't going to be there when I got home. I felt the hole of misery that had been my constant reality those long months last winter rip through me and the fog began to wash over me. It was hard to fight my way through it. It hindered everything, my sight, my sense of smell, my movement. I pushed through it, desperately clinging to the speed that was my only hope of holding Bella again.

"She's going to be okay." I tried to tell myself. "She's going to be fine. You can still save her." I did everything I could to convince myself, hoping that words of encouragement would lift the mist and I'd be free again. It kind of worked, I could at least see a little more clearly.

When I finally got to my garage an hour later, Alice was waiting with my keys.

"Let me come." She said.

I grabbed the keys from her hand and slid into the car, shifting into reverse before she had a chance to follow. "Thanks." I said and sped off down the driveway. I flew down the highway, thankful that no one was on the road. By the time I got to the line, I was already listening carefully for anything that would show Bella was okay.

Nothing.

I pulled off the road and backed into the trees, waiting and listening. The minutes ticked by and I still had no sign. 10 minutes, half and hour, an hour... How long was I going to wait. My grip tightened on the steering wheel as I fought the urge to cross the line and find her.

I couldn't take it, I was going after him. I got out of the car and my phone rang.

"What?" I barked harshly.

"Don't you dare!" Alice said, knowing my plan.

"I HAVE to find her, Alice."

"If anything happened, I would have seen Charlie get the call." She said.

"So I'm supposed to just wait here and let her get hurt?" I asked half maddened by anger.

"I'm upset too, Edward. But we're not going to start a war with the Quileutes over fear. We don't know that anything has happened. If ANYTHING happens to her, we'll all back you 110% in going after Jacob but right now, just sit and wait."

I slammed my phone shut and threw it in the car so hard the battery fell out. I ran around the car to the line, I was going to find her. I moved to step over the boundary...

I couldn't do it. I paused with my foot in the air for 15 seconds before finally growling and slamming it down on my side. As much as I hated to admit it, Alice was right. It wasn't worth starting a war when I didn't know that Bella was in danger. I paced the line frantically, straining to hear anything for another hour when I finally heard it. The sweetest sound I'd ever heard in my life. Bella's engine was coming up the road.

I flew into the front seat of my car, waited for her to pass into my territory and pulled out behind her. I would follow her until she pulled over so I could talk to her about her serious lack of judgment. And if she didn't pull over, I would follow her home. I didn't care what Charlie would think, I was too angry to care. I'd deal with him later.

It was minutes before she even noticed I was following her. She glanced into her mirror and I saw her mouth move.

"Aw, crap." she mouthed. She looked to the edge of the road and then back at me in the mirror and then focused her eyes on the road. She wasn't going to pull over. Fine, I could wait.

I creeped closer to her car, following only inches behind her but she didn't look at me again. I followed her through town, never taking my eyes off her guilty face that reflected back at me in the rear-view mirror.

I was surprised then when she didn't turn on the road that would take her home. I figured she was going to want Charlie around, make sure I had to at least keep my voice down instead of scream like I wanted to. Was she actually going to drive to my house, to a house of angry vampires?

My question was answered when she turned down another road, a strange road and I immediately knew where she was going... Angela's. She'd promised Angela she would help her fill out those stupid graduation announcements and now she was going to use that as an excuse not to face me. I gripped the steering wheel tightly, so tightly in fact that I felt it begin to give under the pressure of my stone hands. I loosened my grip and took a few deep breaths.

"She'll have to face me eventually." I said to myself.

When she pulled over in front of Angela's house she stared down at her steering wheel, avoiding eye contact with me as I drove passed. When I got passed her, I stared at her in my mirror, watching her run up the steps and knock on the door, dancing with nerves. Coward.

I turned the corner and threw my foot down as I sped off towards my house. I had a plan to make sure that this wouldn't happen again and Alice standing on the highway where it intersected with my driveway proved to me that it would work.

I pulled over and left my car on the side of the driveway. I didn't have time to drive to Seattle.

"Oh I am so EXCITED!" Alice beamed as she skipped over to me. I glared at her.

"Of course, it's very upsetting that it's under these circumstances, but still... YAY!"

"So you'll do it?" I asked sharply.

"Honey, for my yellow Porsche, I'd sit on her and hold her down the whole time you were gone. Now lets go!"

I smiled and followed after her as she twisted in and out of the trees towards Seattle. When we got to the sound I headed towards the water, ready to dive in and swim across but Alice stopped.

"What are you doing?" She asked. "We can't show up at a nice car dealership soaking wet."

"The run will dry us off." I said moving towards the water.

"We're taking the ferry." She said.

"Alice that will add another HOUR to the trip." I said.

"Well we have to take it back anyway. Come on, Edward. Bella will be in no rush to get home... trust me. She knows you're going to be there waiting. We have time."

I groaned, but Alice's face became hard as she glared. "This dress is dry clean only, Edward."

I rolled my eyes and dragged myself after her onto the ferry. The pace of the boat moving over the water was too slow. I was watching the minutes tick by, minutes that Bella could be using to sneak home.

"I'm telling you, Edward." Alice said soothingly, "She's not going to be home for hours."

When the Ferry finally docked in Edmonds, I raced after Alice until we reached Barrier Motors in Belleview. When we walked through the doors, the salesman who had sold me my Volvo a few years before recognized us and bounded towards us as quickly as his squat legs would carry him.

"Mr. Cullen!" He said brightly, taking my hand in his and shaking it quickly. "How's the Volvo driving? Come to see a newer model? We've got a wide selection just shipped in last week."

"No, thank you. I'm looking for something a bit more...exotic." I said pulling out my black card. His eyes widened as the dollar signs began adding up in his head.

"Of course, Mr. Cullen! We have the finest selection of Bentley's, Audi's and Porsche's in the Seattle area. What are you looking for?"

"A Porsche, I think." I said nonchalantly. "A 911 Turbo, maybe."

"Yellow." Alice added.

"Awh, a gift for a special lady?" The salesman asked with a wink.

"A thank you present for my sister, Alice." I corrected.

"Well right this way, Alice." He smiled, holding his arm out for her. "Lets see if we can't find something you like." Alice took his arm in hers and bounded into the show room. Her eyes widened as she saw the selection of sports cars. The salesman moved her towards a few models towards the front but her eyes were bobbing around the room until she found it. The 2006 Porsche 911 Turbo, in Canary Yellow.

"That one." She said, not concealing her almost childish desire for the shiny car.

"Ah!" The salesman smiled. "New this year, manual transmission, power locks and windows, leather interior, 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. It's an excellent car."

Alice spun around with a wide grin. "I'll take it."

The dealers mouth curled into a wide grin as he imagined the commission. He turned to me. "The car is just under $142." He said.

"What is it exactly?" I asked.

"$141,650." He replied, though his face fell as he thought about my counter offer. I didn't have the time or desire to haggle the price down. Alice had saved my life, I wasn't hesitant at all to spend a million on her let a lone a measly hundred grand.

"I'll take it." I said, handing him my card.

His eyes grew wide as he took the piece of shiny black plastic from my hand. "Yes, sir."

We followed him out of the room while the mechanics drove Alice's new car out of the show room and into the parking lot outside, where they wiped the dust from the paint and added fresh wax.

He printed out the forms I needed to sign to legally take the car from the dealership while Alice bounded up and down next to me. When everything was signed and he'd swiped my card through the register, he handed Alice the keys.

She stared at them with an almost reverence, looked up at me smiling broadly and ran at the fastest, acceptable human pace she could to her new car. I shook the salesman's hand and followed after her.

The car was already purring when I stepped out of the dealership. I slid into the passengers seat and Alice took off. We wove in and out of traffic until we got to Seattle.

"Want to go around through Olympia?" she asked excitedly.

"Back to Forks, Alice." I said.

She frowned and took the exit that would take us to Edmonds. We boarded the ferry and when we were in park, Alice was immediately outside of the car making sure everything stayed away from it. I watched the clock again as we made the trek across the sound.

Alice made it back to Forks in record time, thoroughly enjoying the speed of her new car. Despite my anger at Bella, I felt happy as we sped down the highway. Alice laughed the entire drive and it felt good knowing that I had given her something she truly loved. When we stopped in front of the driveway though, the elated feeling drifted away and the anger took over again.

"See you in a little bit." Alice chirped as I stepped out of the car. I waved at her.

My Volvo wasn't in the driveway when I looked around for it. I assumed Esme or Rosalie had driven it up to the house while Alice and I were gone. It didn't matter, I didn't want my car to be outside when Bella got home.

I came through her window and was happy that I didn't have to wait long. I heard her engine coming around the corner as I closed the curtains behind me.

"Bella?" Charlie called when the door opened.

"Hey, Dad." She replied nervously. I smiled. Though I was furious with her, the tension in her voice was adorable. I felt the anger in me cool and then regretted it. It was going to be hard to be mad at her when she came in the door. When I could see her chocolate eyes, taste her scent on my tongue..

I shifted my mind to the conversation downstairs, I needed to focus if I was going to say want I needed to.

"How's Jacob?" Charlie asked, trying to be casually but I could hear the pompous undertone. It was exactly what I needed to be angry again.

"Good." Bella answered.

"You get over to the Webers'?"

"Yep. We got all her announcements addressed."

"That's nice." Charlie said. "I'm glad you spent time with your friends today."

"Me, too." Bella said. I heard her footsteps move directly under me. The kitchen. She was stalling.

She moved around a little and then there was no sound but her quickening heartbeat. Finally, I heard her take a deep breath and move back out to the living room.

"I'm going to study." She said gloomily and I smiled.

"See you later." Charlie called.

Her footsteps came up the stairs hard and slow. The doorknob turned and when the door opened, her head was turned away from me. She closed the door, took a deep breath and turned around to face me.

I glared.

She cringed as she expected the tirade but I couldn't do it. The fear on her face was too much for me to handle. I wanted to run and wrap her in my arms, comfort her until she didn't look so positively frightened. That only made me angrier, feeling guilty for being angry. I didn't know what to do so I just stood and glared.

"Hi." She said after the silence became to much. I couldn't speak, I continued to stare at her.

"Er.." She went on. "So, I'm still alive." I growled. How could she joke about something like that. She didn't know what it was like when I thought I'd lost her the last time. How could she... I took a deep breath.

"No harm done." She shrugged. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose as I arranged my words in my head. How could she be so blasé about this?

"Bella... Do you have any idea how close I came to crossing the line today? To breaking the treaty and coming after you? Do you know what that would have meant?"

She gasped. "You can't!" She cringed at how loud she'd spoken and listened for Charlie. When it was obvious that he wasn't coming down she continued. "Edward, they'd use any excuse for a fight. They'd love that. You can't ever break the rules!"

"Maybe they aren't the only ones who would enjoy a fight." I said coolly.

"Don't you start." She said. "You made the treaty- you stick to it."

"If he hurt you-" I began to protest.

"Enough!" She said sharply. "There's nothing to worry about. Jacob isn't dangerous."

"Bella." I said, rolling my eyes. "You aren't exactly the best judge of what is or isn't dangerous." It was true. Here she was standing five feet away and daring to anger a vampire.

"I know I don't have to worry about Jake, and neither do you."

I ground my already clenched teeth together and looked away from her. She took a deep breath and walked to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. I didn't move.

"I'm sorry I made you anxious." She said quietly. Her voice was so small, so guilty.. I couldn't take it. I sighed and pulled her into me.

"Anxious is a bit of an understatement... It was a long day." I said softly.

"You weren't supposed to know about it." She admitted. "I thought you'd be hunting longer." She looked up at me and frowned. She noticed the darkness in my eyes.

"When Alice saw you disappear, I came back." I explained.

"You shouldn't have done that. Now you'll have to go away again." She nearly cried.

"I can wait." I offered.

"That's ridiculous. I mean, I know she couldn't see me with Jacob, but you should have known-"

"But I didn't!" I said exasperatedly. "And you can't expect me to let you-"

"Oh yes I can!" She interrupted, anger growing in her voice. "That's exactly what I expect."

"This wont happened again." I assured her.

"That's right! Because you're not going to over react next time!"

"Because there isn't going to be a next time."

"I understand when you have to leave, even if I don't like it." She said.

"That's not the same. I'm not risking my life."

"Neither am I."

"Werewolves constitute a risk."  
"I disagree."

"I'm not negotiating this, Bella."  
"Neither am I."

I balled my fingers into fists as the anger rose in me again. She didn't understand. I didn't care if she thought this was some game, she was never going back down there again. Even if I had to be by her side 24 hours a day and never leave on a hunting trip again.

"Is this really about my safety?" She asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" I said, a little too harshly.

"You aren't... I mean, you know better than to be jealous right?"

"Do I?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Be serious."

"Easily- there's nothing remotely humorous about this."

She frowned. "Or... is this something else all together. Some vampires-and-werewolves-are-always-enemies nonsense? Is this just a testosterone-fueled-"  
I cut her off. "This is only about you. All I care about is that you're safe."

She cringed a little under my fiery gaze. "Okay." She sighed. "I believe that. But I want you to know something- When it comes to all this enemies non-sense, I'm out. I am a neutral country. I am Switzerland. I refuse to be affected by territorial disputes between mythical creatures. Jacob is family. You are... well, not exactly the love of my life, because I expect to love you for much longer than that. The love of my existence. I don't care who's a werewolf and who's a vampire. If Angela turns out to be a witch, she can join the party, too."

I stared down at her but she looked up at me undeterred.

"Switzerland." She repeated.

"Bella..." Now that my initial anger had faded, I really breathed in for the first time. It wasn't pleasant, I wrinkled my nose at the smell.

"What now?" she demanded.

"Well... don't be offended... but you smell like a dog." Her eyes grew wider as she stared at me and I couldn't help it.

I smiled.

I kissed her and held her for a moment before I had to run home. I was surprised as I came to the house to see Emmett's jeep outside.

"What are you guys doing back?" I asked as I came into the kitchen.

"We told you, it wouldn't be any fun without you." Emmett said.

"Besides, you'll have to go out again soon. We figure we'll just try again for next Friday."

"I don't know..." I said. Alice skipped into the kitchen.

"It's okay, Edward. I'm all over this. Bella will be here while your away and I won't let her out until you're back."

I smiled. "Okay."

She smiled back at me. "Hey, Everybody. Let's go look at my car again!" My family rolled their eyes and followed Alice out to the garage. She bounced around opening and closing doors, letting everyone sit in the drivers seat and telling them about the features.

She spent the whole day out with it and once again I felt the satisfaction knowing that I had made her happy.

When the sunset, my family shifted into their nightly routines. Jasper sat down with a new book, Emmett and Rosalie were playing chess. Esme was going over plans for some new project and Carlisle was researching a new strand of bird flu that was effecting most of Asia and parts of Europe.

I decided to spend the night with Bella. I felt guilty that we'd argued and wanted to make it up to her by spending a night talking with her and holding her while she slept.

I went through the garage and the last thing I saw before I made my way into the drizzle was Alice, tucking her Porsche in for the night.


	6. Chapter 5 The Hunt

Chapter 5

"I don't know about this." I said for probably the hundredth time.

"Edward, I'm insulted by your complete lack of faith in me. I'm telling you everything will go smoothly. I'm picking her up when she gets off work, bringing her back here, and locking her in your room until Saturday."

I glared at her. "The point is that she's supposed to have fun."

Alice stared back at me undeterred. "I'll let her out for school." Esme brushed her hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, Edward." She said. "I've ordered food from La Bella Italia and Alice has ordered all of Bella's favorite movies. She'll be fine."

"Plus you bought that ridiculous bed." Alice said. "She won't be happy being stuck here but at least she'll be comfortable."

"That's the idea." Esme smiled.

"I still think it would be safer if I--"

"Oh no you don't." Emmett boomed as he walked around the back of the Jeep. "You weaseled out last week, there's no way we're letting you off the hook now."

"Besides, safe is not the word I would chose to describe the situation with a thirsty you and a delicious Bella." Jasper said, appearing behind Emmett. I glared at him. Carlisle put his hand on my shoulder.

"Face it son, if you don't come willingly, we'll be forced to tie you down and sling you over Emmett's shoulder."

"You'll be back before you know it." Alice added. "Besides, you NEED to hunt and if you stay here, you're dining options will include white tailed deer or elk." Her nose wrinkled dramatically.

"Or wolf." I added under my breath. Emmett chuckled and raised his hand for a high five but Carlisle and Esme glared. "Alright, Alright. But we're coming back first thing Saturday."

"Before she even wakes up." Carlisle promised.

"Let's get on the road." Emmett said impatiently. Rosalie bounded out of the house wearing some sturdy jeans and Nikes.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked with a malicious smile.

"Hunting." Rosalie said matter of factly and moved to Emmett's side.

"I don't think so." I said blocking her and smiling maliciously. "You have a slumber party to attend."

Rosalie froze and stared at me. "You've got to be kidding me."

Alice was next to me in the next second, her face echoing mine. "That's right. Emmett lost."

"I didn't lose!" Emmett insisted. "The fight was cut short because Jasper launched me into the flo-" But he stopped when his eyes met Esme's.

"The fight ended with you on your back." Jasper said with a smug smile. His eyes turned to Rosalie. "I win."

"Oh come on." Rosalie pleaded. "You said you wanted Bella to have fun!"

"I know." I said. "And I expect her to."

"You made the bet." Alice said. Rosalie turned pleading eyes to Emmett but there was nothing he could say in her defense. She'd lost fair and square.

"Fine." She said flatly. "But I don't have to be apart of your stupid party." She flipped her hair and stormed back into the house.

"Well I feel better." I said with a laugh and stood next to Jasper. "Watch her carefully Alice." My eyes narrowed. "Or else."

"Don't worry. She'll be in your arms before you know it."

Alice and Esme waved to us as we bolted down the driveway. The trip didn't have the same playful feeling to it as the last one did. All I could think about was Bella sneaking off to La Push after work instead of coming straight home. I stared down at my phone, waiting for the call.

I decided to stop worrying somewhere around midnight as we started treking into the California wilderness. Partly because I knew Alice would have Bella in bed by now. Partly because I'd lost cell phone reception an hour ago. I sighed in relief, put my phone in my pocket and followed after Emmett.

"Let's stop here." Carlisle said as we approached a giant redwood. We huddled around the massive tree and I breathed in deeply. I could smell some rodents burrowing in the wet ground, an owl in the tree, a brook near by and the smell of gasoline from a construction site a few hundred yards to our left. No mountain lions.

"Jasper and I will go this way." Carlisle said nodding to the north. "You two head to the south and meet us back here before 7 pm tomorrow."

"I always go with Edward." Emmett complained. "Let Jasper hear about Bella for once." Carlisle smiled. "Alright, Emmett you're with me. We'll see you and Jasper tomorrow." I nodded and followed after Jasper.

We ran for an hour before he stopped dead in his tracks. "Do you smell that?" he asked. The scent washed over, warm and moist. My desiccated throat ached as a blistering fire rose deep inside of me.

"Yes." I croaked through the dryness. "That way." I nodded my head to the south. Jasper hunched over and stalked after the scent. His eyes darkened and his lips curled back over his teeth. I followed, struggling to keep from darting after my prey. Jasper was a more experienced hunter than I was, lethal. I watched him very closely, mimicking him movements.

We came into a rock clearing, close to the brook I smelled earlier. There were two adult male cats, four females and a litter of around 7 cubs. Jasper crouched down, waited two seconds and then launched himself at the largest adult male. It was like watching a snake strike, the large cat was dead before it hit the ground and Jasper was draining him.

I followed after him, taking down the nearest female, before the pack could react. My strike was not nearly as precise as Jasper's. The animal fought me as I held her to the ground and drank from her neck. The loud thudding of her heart, slowed and stuttered as I sucked the life from her. When it stopped she went limp and I shoved her body from me. Jasper was drinking from another female, while the last male lie crying on the ground with two broken legs.

I smiled and moved to drain him. When I finished, Jasper was sitting on a rock waiting for me.

"Thanks." I said as I pushed the animal he had injured for me to the ground.

"Don't worry about it." He said, bounding off the rock.

"I guess I'm out of practice." I admitted, almost embarrassed. Jasper smiled.

"Too much deer. It's making you soft."

I glared back. "You hunt the same as I do." I said.

"Wrong. Do you actually think Emmett and I sit around the house waiting for you on the nights you spend with Bella? The grizzlies are coming out of hibernation and Emmett's been dieting all winter."

"Where are you finding Grizzlies? I asked, suddenly worried. Jasper laughed at the panic on my face.

"In Oregon mostly." He smiled. "Plenty far enough away from your fragile Bella." I sighed. I knew I could trust Alice but I still hated the idea of Bella being around ANOTHER dangerous creature while I was away.

"Thank-you." Jasper said, interrupting my thoughts.

I stared at him confused. "For what?"

"Alice. The Porsche. You've made her really happy, happier than I've seen her in a long time. And Bella too. Alice really loves her and she's needs a friend like Bella. A best girlfriend."

I was taken aback. Jasper wasn't the kind of guy who shared feelings. He was strong and reserved. I'd always been the one in the family who'd been open about my feelings. Something that had only been proven last winter while I wallowed in misery while my family worried endlessly every night.

"Alice is my sister." I said. "But she's more than that... she's my best friend. I know we shouldn't pick favorites or anything, and I love every member of our family... it's just... Alice is the only person I can tell everything to, the only person I can just be around, the only person I could trust Bella with."

"I know what you mean." Jasper said, "And like I said, thank you."

"You're welcome." I said smiling. He looked up at me and grinned. "So who's after Alice?"

"Carlisle." I said without hesitating. Jasper nodded.

"Then Esme." He offered.

"Nah, I'd say Emmett first. I try to keep Esme out of my problems, make her think I'm the perfect son." I laughed.

"Okay, okay... so who's the person you'd trust least?" We stared at each other for half a second.

"Rosalie." We said in unison and rolled off the rock laughing.

We found several other cats that night, drinking until we were both overly full and our eyes glowed honey colored. When we decided we had enough, we camped out under some trees and talked for hours. I couldn't believe how much I missed while I was with Bella. The only person I really talked to anymore was Alice and she seemed to be as engrossed in Bella as I did.

Since we'd been back, Carlisle and Esme had taken a weekend long trip to Alaska to visit Tanya, Jasper and Emmett had been to Oregon 17 times and even Rosalie had began writing a book of poetry. I almost felt bad, I'd been too busy with Bella to do anything that my family would consider worth while. Of course I couldn't think of anything more worth while than holding my Bella as she dreamed. It was a strange conflict in me and for a slight, microscopic moment, I was almost glad Carlisle had agreed to change Bella after graduation. That passed quickly and then I was disgusted with how selfish I was.

When the sun started to set we pushed through the trees to meet Carlisle and Emmett. They were waiting for us under the same redwood we'd stopped at the night before.

"You're late." Emmett said when we stopped in front of them.

I looked down at my watch.

7:01

"Oh my God!" I said in mock horror. "I'm surprise you guys waited for us!" Jasper laughed and Emmett punched me in the arm. I turned to launch myself at him.

_"Stop." _Carlisle thought. _"If we leave now, you'll be back in time to spend a few hours with Bella before Alice takes her home." _

I stopped, my fist freezing mid air, Emmett stared at me questioningly. I interrupted his confused thoughts. "Well time to get on the road. After you Carlisle."

He laughed and took off through the trees. Emmett threw rocks at me the entire way through the forest. I retorted by jumping up and grabbing pine cones off the redwoods and hurling them back at him. We laughed as the game became more and more violent.. that is until the phone that I'd all but forgotten buzzed in my pocket.

I stopped, mid step. My exhilaration plummeting, a hole ripping through my gut. My family stopped around me, hearing the vibration. I reached a shaky hand into my pocket and flipped open the screen.

One Voicemail. From Alice. If my heart could freeze any farther, become anymore silent, it would have. I held down the voicemail button and slowly raised the phone to my ear.

I knew what was coming. Bella had gone to La Push... and never come back. How could I have left her. The hole ripped through me again and my vision disappeared.

"You have one new message."

I couldn't breathe.

"First message."

Sweet relief washed over me, Bella's voice, her soft, beautiful, angelic voice...

"You are in trouble. Enormous trouble. Angry grizzly bears are going to look tame next to what is waiting for you at home."

I smiled. And lowered the phone. Jasper laughed.

"Better watch out, Edward." He teased. "You are out of practice." And he took off down the highway after Carlisle.

Emmett stared at me for a minute. "But we were hunting Mountain Lions..." I laughed and ran off after Jasper.

"Where did you find Grizzly Bears?" Emmett shouted behind me.

We got home just after midnight. The clouds were covering what was a full moon and the night was very quiet. We walked through the front door to find Esme arranging flowers in a vase and Rosalie and Alice curled up on the couch watching the newscaster report more murders in Seattle. Rosalie's thoughts were focused on the night she had been changed. The rape, the betrayal of her ex fiancée... I hated how often she dwelled on it. And then I cringed as I saw in her thoughts that she had told Bella the story and saw the horrified look on her face. I pushed it away, hopefully the story would convince Bella that she should remain human. I could only hope.

I inhaled deeply. Yes, I could smell her, she was here. I turned to bolt up the stairs but Alice stopped. me.

_"Uh... Edward." _She thought hesitantly. _"Before you go up there... I need to talk to you about something."_

I froze and turned around... dreading whatever it was she was about to say. Several things flashed through her mind but only one picture mattered to me. Jacob Black, a motorcycle, and Bella jumping on the back. A growl built deep in my gut.

"What... Happened?" I said through the fury.

"Well.. we went to school on Friday and..." her eyes narrowed. "the dog." She said with a growl "Showed up on that death trap and before I could stop her she was running through the parking lot, jumping on the back of the bike and speeding off!"

I glared.

"There were people around, I couldn't get to her fast enough!"

"I came home and tried everything I could to see around those mutts but I got nothing. She came home a few hours later on some other motorcycle and shut herself in your room for the rest of the day."

I turned to storm up the stairs... Bella and I needed to have some words, but Esme reached out and stopped me.

"Edward... Maybe the real danger with Jacob is keeping Bella away from him." She said.

"Excuse me?" I asked. She wasn't making any sense... the words didn't fit in that order.

"She's right, Edward." Carlisle continued. "I mean, she was with him for 6 months while we were... away. And he protected her. I'm not saying she should be spending extraordinary amounts of time alone with the wolves but the most dangerous things that have happened involving Jacob have been the lengths Bella has taken to see him. It's creating problems between the two of you and not doing any good for our relationship with the pack. Perhaps if we were prepared for her to go down there, we could be more ready to deal with any thing that my happen and maybe Jacob would be calmer knowing that you weren't trying to keep her away."

I growled. I hated to admit it, but my family was right. Though I would not concede that Jacob wasn't at all dangerous, I might be overestimating just how much danger he really was presenting to Bella, after all Victoria was still out there and she'd be safer surrounded by the entire pack than she would be with only Esme, Alice and Rosalie around, especially if Alice was using all of her gift to try to see around the wolves.

I'd have to make a compromise. Bella could be allowed to visit Jacob IF I would be allowed to at least drive her down to the line... and IF she took a cell phone so she could call me at the first hint of danger so I could come and get her. And if anything happened... if one hair was out of place. I'd destroy him.

I took a few calming breaths before I started up the stairs. When I reached my door, I paused, assessed my mood, and opened the door.

I brushed my eyes over the bed, it was empty. I would've panicked except her scent filled the room and I could hear her breathing deeply. My eyes fell on the couch pushed against the far wall. She was there, curled up in the golden comforter Esme had picked out for the bed. I rolled my eyes and moved to her side.

Seeing her, laying there sleeping, washed all the anger from me. I wrapped her in the blanket and lifted her with out disturbing her sleep. Holding her next to my chest, breathing her scent, feeling her warmth... I was calm. I was at peace. I laid her as gently as I could on the bed but when I moved my arms away from her, her breath stopped suddenly and her eyes clamped down... she was awake. I moved into the bed and waited for her to wake up fully.

She stretched without opening her eyes and then rolled over, the bed was large enough that though she'd completely turned from her back to her stomach, she still wasn't touching me. I watched her try to snuggle into a more comfortable position before she finally froze, sat up and stared confused down at the bed.

"Sorry." I said softly. "I didn't mean to wake you." she looked up at me, her eyes going from confusion to worry and then, when she saw no anger on my face, relief.

Her hands reached through the darkness, clasping around my shirt as she pulled herself into me. I wrapped my arms around her and cradled her against my chest. The steady beat of her heart began to keep time with my breathing, perfect synchronization.

Her cheek began to move away from my cool skin and her chin and lips pressed against my throat, my chin and eventually my lips. I pressed my own into hers and kissed her deeply. When I thought of the voice mail that had panicked me so much on the highway, I laughed quietly.

"I was all braced for the wrath that was going to put grizzlies to shame, and this is what I get? I should infuriate you more often."

"Give me a minute to work up to it." She said softly, teasingly. I pressed my lips to hers once more.

"I'll wait as long as you want." I said, not taking my lips from hers. She moaned slightly, and my fingers knotted in her hair.

"Maybe in the morning." She pulled her whole face into mine. Her breathing became harsh, her heart rate elevated, heat was pouring off of her like the hottest August sun. I smiled, and with difficulty, pulled myself away from the kiss.

"Whatever you prefer." I whispered and moved my kiss away from her mouth, to the contours of her chin and neck.

"Welcome home." She said. "I'm glad you came back."

"That's a very good thing." I said, not taking my lips from her skin. Her warm, smooth skin.

"Mmm." She moaned in agreement. Her arms wrapped around my neck, her heart thundering beneath her chest. I brushed my hand down her arm, around her elbow barely touching her, leaving goosebumps as evidence of my trail.

My hand began to move of it's own volition, pure, sexual, animalistic instinct weighing out over rationality. I measured my level of control and decided it couldn't hurt to explore a little. My hand moved from her arm to her ribs, down over her waist, her hip, her thigh, I stopped at her calf and hooked it over my hip, brushing soft circles on her leg as I kissed her neck.

Her breathing faltered and she trembled slightly. When I could feel her begin to gasp, her temperature rising, I spoke again.

"Not to bring on the ire prematurely... but do you mind telling me what it is about this bed that you object to?" I rolled over and pulled her on top of me. My hands rested on her hips and moved up to hold her face, so that I could place my lips back on her throat. This was wrong, I was pushing the limits too far, but I finally had her to myself, had her in a place where I wouldn't have to worry about Charlie.. the only thing on my mind was the feel of her skin. Surely, I could control myself a little longer.

"The bed?" I asked again, when she didn't answer me. "_I_ think it's nice."

"It's unnecessary." She gasped. I pulled her face back down to mine and kissed her deeply once more. Without breaking away from the kiss I rolled her over and moved over her, touching her, but completely supporting my own weight on my legs and forearms. Her heart began to thunder louder than I'd ever heard it, I laughed.

"That's debatable." I said in disagreement. "This would be difficult on a couch." My tongue traced the outline of her lips, God how I loved the taste of her skin.

"Did you change your mind?" She nearly stuttered, gripping the sheets at her side. Well it was over now. What little of herself control was gone and I would never be able to keep in control of myself with her so willing to give every part of herself to me. I rolled over and sighed.

"Don't be ridiculous, Bella. I was just trying to illustrate the benefits of the bed you don't seem to like. Don't get carried away." I smiled at her.

"Too late." She purred. "And I like the bed."

"Good, I do too." I said, pressing my lips gently to her forehead.

"But I still think it's unnecessary. If we're not going to get carried away, what's the point?"

I sighed again. "For the hundredth time, Bella- It's too dangerous."

"I like danger." She said seductively. My face hardened as the picture of her speeding away on Jacob Black's motorcycle circled in my mind again.

"I know." I said flatly.

"I'll tell you what's dangerous." She said quickly. "I'm going to spontaneously combust one of these days- and you'll have no one but yourself to blame."

I pushed her a few inches away from me.

"What are you doing?" She asked suddenly horrified, grasping at my shirt to prevent me from moving her.

"Protection you from combustion. If this is too much for you..."

"I can handle it." She insisted.

I smiled and wrapped my arm back around her shoulder as she wormed her way into my side again. "I'm sorry I gave you the wrong impression." I said. "I didn't mean to make you unhappy. That wasn't nice."

"Actually, it was very, very nice." She said slyly.

I took a deep breath. "Aren't you tired? I should let you sleep."

"No, I'm not." She promised. "I don't mind if you want to give the wrong impression again."

"That's probably a bad idea... You're not the only one who gets carried away."

"Yes, I am." She grumbled.

"You have no idea, Bella. It doesn't help that you are so eager to undermine my self-control, either." I said with a chuckle.

"I'm not going to apologize for that."

I sighed, serious now. "Can I apologize?"

"For what?" She asked.

"You were angry with me, remember?"

"Oh, that."

"I'm sorry. I was wrong. It's much easier to have the proper perspective when I have you safely here. I go a little berserk when I try to leave you. I don't think I'll go so far again. It's not worth it."

She smiled as I tightened my arms around her. "Didn't you find any mountain lions?"

"Yes, I did, actually. Still not worth the anxiety. I'm sorry I had Alice hold you hostage, though. That was a bad idea."

"Yes." She said without inflection.

"I won't do it again." I promised.

"Okay." She said brightly. "But slumber parties do have their advantages... "You can hold me hostage any time you want."

"Mmm." I grinned. "I may take you up on that."

"So is it my turn now?" She asked.

"Your turn?"

"To apologize."

I smiled, "What do you have to apologize for?"

"Aren't you mad at me?"

"No." I replied honestly.

"Didn't you see Alice when you got home?"

"Yes-why?"

"Are you going to take her Porsche back?"

"Of course not, it was a gift." I said, almost insulted by her lack of faith with my generosity. Her mouth fell into a guilty frown.

"Don't you want to know what I did?"

I shrugged. "I'm always interested in everything you do- but you don't have to tell me unless you want to." I reality, I really had no desire to hear what went on on the reservation.

"But I went to La Push!"

I raised an eyebrow. "I know."

"And I ditched school!"

"So did I."

She stared into the darkness for a second and looked back up at me, reaching for my face and tracing her fingers along the features of my face.

"Where did all this tolerance come from?"

I sighed. "I decided that you were right. My problem before was more about my...prejudice against werewolves than anything else. I'm going to try to be more reasonable and trust your judgment. If you say it's safe, then I'll believe you."

"Wow." She said.

"And... most importantly.. I'm not willing to let this drive a wedge between us."

She laid her head against my chest and smiled.

"So..." I said, trying to be casual. "Did you make plans to go back to La Push again soon?"

I felt her swallow, she didn't say anything. Did she think I didn't trust her and was going to spy on her?

"Just so that I can make my own plans." I said in hurried reassurance. "I don't want you to feel like you have to hurry back because I'm sitting around waiting for you."

"No..." She said hesitantly. "I don't have plans to go back."

I smiled but tried to keep it out of my voice. "Oh. You don't have to do that for me."

"I don't think I'm welcome anymore." She admitted in a whisper.

"Did you run over someone's cat?" I joked. I didn't want her to feel pressured to tell me what had happened, but I was dying to know what horrible thing she did to Jacob to make him want her to stay away.

"No..." She took a deep breath. Her answer was hurried and mumbled. "I thought Jacob would have realized... I didn't think it would surprise him... He wasn't expecting.. that it was so soon."

"Ah." I said quietly, though my body was suddenly tense.

"He said he'd rather see me dead." She said, her voice breaking.

That last word was all it took for the fiery rage to build in me again. The room turned red and my body froze with fury. I hated Jacob. I hated everything about him. I hated that he posed danger to Bella but that she still wanted to see him. I hated that, deep down, I KNEW that Bella loved him. And I hated that he could say something like that to her and I could do nothing about it. And that even after he did say something like that to her, she would still want to see him. That it hurt her that she couldn't.

I calmed the anger enough to where I felt safe having Bella next to me and then tucked her against my chest again. "I'm so sorry." I managed to whisper.

"I thought you'd be glad." She said in surprise.

"Glad over something that's hurt you? I don't think so Bella."

She sighed this time and reformed herself to my body.

"What's wrong?" She asked when five minutes later I still hadn't unfrozen.

"It's nothing." I replied trying to be casual.

"You can tell me."

I paused. "It might make you angry."

"I still want to know."

"I could quite literally kill him for saying that to you. I _want _to." I sighed.

She laughed, but not in a way that made me think she was okay with what I had said. "I guess it's a good thing you've got so much self-control."

"I could slip." I said thoughtfully.

"If you're going to have a lapse in control." She said hopefully. "I can think of a better place for it." She tried to reach her lips up to mine again but I held her away from me. The anger hadn't entirely subsided in me, and now was not a good time to open myself to that kind of temptation.

"Must I always be the responsible one?" I sighed.

She grinned. "No. Let me be in charge of responsibility for a few minutes.. or hours."

"Goodnight, Bella." I said sternly.

"Wait- There was something else I wanted to ask you about."

"What's that?"

"I was talking to Rosalie last night." My body re tensed as I waited for whatever it was that Rosalie had said to her, knowing what she had said, and worried about what it would have done to Bella.

"Yes, she was thinking about that when I got in. She gave you quite a lot to consider, didn't she."

"She told me a little bit... about the time your family lived in Denali." She said.

"Yes?" I said surprised that it wasn't Rosalie that she wanted to talk about.

"She mentioned something about a bunch of female vampires... and you." I didn't say anything, I had no idea where she was going with this.

"Don't worry." She assured me. "She told me you didn't... show any preference. But I was just wondering, you know, if any of them had. Shown a preference for you, I mean."

I looked at her confused.

"Which one?" She asked nervous through her poor casual charade. "Or was it more than one?"

I wanted to ask her if she was serious, but I just stared at her.

"Alice will tell me. I'll go ask her right now." She said, trying to squirm out of my iron grip and failing.

"It's late." I said, unable to hide the nervousness from my voice. "Besides, I think Alice stepped out." I really didn't want Alice regaling all of the long years Tanya had shamelessly thrown herself at me. Nothing had ever happened but it was... to say the least... uncomfortable to think about.

"It's bad." She guessed. "It's really bad, isn't it?" Her heart rate increased. I squeezed her gently and kissed her nose.  
"Calm down, Bella. You're being absurd."

"Am I?" She asked in a voice higher than normal. "Then why won't you tell me?"

"Because there is nothing to tell. You're blowing this wildly out of proportion."

"Which one?" She demanded.

I sighed. "Tanya expressed a little interest. I let her know, in a very courteous, gentlemanly fashion, that I did not return that interest. End of story."

"Tell me something- what does Tanya look like?"

"Just like the rest of us... white skin, gold eyes.." I said, wondering why my voice was coming out so fast.

"And of course extraordinarily beautiful." She said.

It was true, she was beautiful. But I never saw her that way. And now that I had Bella and I knew what true beauty was... she seemed almost plain in comparison. I shrugged.

"I suppose to human eyes," I said, trying to be indifferent. "You know what, though?"  
"What?"

I reached down to her ear, breathing over her as I whispered. "I prefer brunettes."

"She's a blonde, that figures." Bella said, undeterred from her bizarre, sudden fit of jealousy.

"Strawberry blonde." I corrected. "Not at all my type."

I reached down to kiss her cheek and throat while she stewed over a woman she had no reason to be jealous of. Eventually she relaxed.

"I guess that's okay then."

"Hmm." I said, my lips curling into a smile against her skin. "You're quite adorable when you're jealous. It's surprisingly enjoyable."

She scowled at me.

"It' s late." I said after a laugh. "Sleep my Bella. Dream happy dreams. You are the only one who has ever touched my heart. It will always be yours. Sleep, my only love."

I began to hum the first bars of her lullaby. She relaxed slightly, molded herself around my chest, and drifted into an easy sleep.


	7. Chapter 6 Intruder

Chapter 6

"Here, have another piece of toast." I said, pushing the plate of bread towards Bella. She scooped the last fork full of egg into her mouth and shook her head.

"I'm done I think." she said, shaking her head at my offer. Esme turned away from the stove, a frying pan full of bacon in her hand.

"Finished already?" she asked. Bella looked towards the sizzling strips of pork hopefully but eventually wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Yeah, I'm stuffed." She dabbed the corners of her mouth with a napkin, drained the remaining orange juice from her glass and hopped off the stool pushed against the breakfast bar. Before she had a chance to pick up her plate to rinse off in the sink, Esme had snatched it away and stowed it in the dishwasher.

"Bella, dear." She smiled. "Go enjoy yourself."

"Are you sure? I-" She protested, but Esme lifted a finger to silence her and winked. I went to her side and threw her over my shoulder and carried her into the living room where Alice was sketching on a pad of paper.

"Edward!" Bella complained with a laugh. "Put me down!" She was beating her fists against my back and though they felt like light feather caresses against my diamond hard skin, I was worried she would bruise herself.

I swung her around and dropped her gently on the couch and then dove on top of her, careful not to press any of my weight on her.

She giggled as she struggled slightly, and uselessly, as I restrained her arms to her side. "Let me go." She demanded playfully.

"Never." I said and kissed her forcefully. When I pulled away, I buried my face in her hair and whispered. "You're my prisoner... forever."

"Good." She replied, smiling. She stretched her face up to kiss me. I moved towards her but before our mouths touched, I moved my hands from her arms and tickled her sides. She began to squirm and laugh uncontrollably.

"Ed. Ward. Please. Stop. I'm. Going. To. Kill. You." She gasped. I laughed at her and sprang off the couch to my feet. She sat up and and glared at me. "You're dead." She said coldly. And her face spread into a wide smile and she leaped off the couch after me. I dodged out of her path easily and turned to face her again. After repeating our dance three times she crossed her arms, frustration showing on her face.

"No fair." She whined. "No vampire powers."

"What do you want me to do?" I asked innocently.

She smiled. "You could chan-"

"Edward, don't you think it's about time I take Bella back to Charlie's house?" Alice interrupted. She knew what Bella was about to say and we both knew that sentence would've ended all playful feelings in me and resulted in a fight. I was thankful she interceded, but my face fell as I realized it would mean Bella had to leave.

"I suppose you're right." I said.

"No." Bella breathed. "I can stay a little longer..."

"The sooner you're home, the sooner I can come home from my hiking trip." I said. "I'll come over in about an hour."

"Fine." She said, frowning. I laughed and wrapped my arms around her. She snuggled her head into my hard chest and clasped her fingers behind my back. With my index finger, I lifted her chin and kissed her deeply. She sunk a little in my arms and it became necessary for me to support her weight. I squeezed her gently and moved away. Her fingers grasped hopefully at my shirt for a moment, but eventually she gave up, sighed and walked towards Alice.

"One hour." She said firmly, looking back at me from the door frame.

"And not one minute later." I promised.

She turned and followed Alice, closing the door behind her. I listened to her walk across the porch, down the stairs and across the yard. My Volvo started and pulled down the driveway. When I could no longer hear the engine pulling my car over the wet highway, I moved to the couch and turned on the TV.

"Police are no closer to solving the mysterious killings...." The woman behind the news desk said. I flipped the channel.

A show about expensive weddings, another explaining how things are made, this time gardening tools. I flipped past shows about a girl pretending to be a pop star, a sit com about a group of 20 somethings living in impossibly huge apartments in an expensive city, a biography on some new celebrity and a comedy from the 50s that was still in black and white. I was about to throw the remote aside and try to find a book to distract me for a few minutes when I came to a movie about Vampires.

I'd seen this movie. Several times. The human perspective on Vampire lore always entertained me. The stories humans came up with to make Vampires seem misunderstood, tortured and above all else able to be overcome, were hilarious. This movie wasn't like that. Though it still erred on our nature, death by sunlight, no reflection... typical Vampire myths, this movie was told from the perspective of a Vampire, in an interview... and it was an eerily accurate depiction of my world. It did not glorify Vampirism, or even romanticize them. It showed how detestable, how... lonely our life really was.

I set the remote down and focused on the images on the screen. Alice came through the door only five minutes later and looked at the television.

"Oh not this again." She groaned. I waved my hand at her for silence and she plopped down on the couch next to me.

"This is ridiculous." she said after only a few minutes. "Performing plays for of humans, as if any vampire would value their existence enough to allow the audience to live through the show let alone care about their entertainment." She reached for the remote, but I snatched it away before she touched it.

"I like it." I said.

"You just like feeling sorry for yourself." She said, not taking her eyes of the remote in my hand. I ignored her and refocused on the characters. She shifted uncomfortably next to me for the rest of the movie, trying to irritate me.

"This is what you want? After all I've told you! You ask me for this?" The actor screamed. I cringed as the other man proclaimed his desire to achieve eternal life. To be damned.

"Dear God. I've failed again, haven't I?" He continued.

I turned away from the violent scene that followed, I didn't want to see anymore. The actor dying on the screen was an all to real reflection of Bella, begging for something which she had no way of comprehending the consequences. My head fell as my fingers twisted angrily in my hair.

"Alright, that's enough." Alice said, picking up the remote from the couch and switching it back to the news.

"I can't do this to her, Alice." I said. She moved off the couch and knelt in front of me.

"It's just a movie, Edward." My hands fell from my head and rested over my knees. The light reflecting off my watch caught my attention and I noted the time. I stood up quickly.

"I'm going to be late." Alice handed me the keys to the Volvo and I sprinted out the door, peeling away from the house and into the rain.

I spent the drive attempting to shake of the guilt off, something I knew I'd never be able to do. When I stepped out of my car and onto the wet pavement in front of Charlie's house, I was almost distracted enough to keep the worry off my face for Bella, when I smelled it. The scent was unmistakably Vampire, but it was foreign to me. Panicked, I turned towards Bella's house, but no... I could hear her inside speaking with Charlie. My head moved from side to side, foolishly thinking the stranger would've stuck around, but nothing. I focused on the direction of the scent. It moved forward from the street directly into Bella's house.

I immediately analyzed the scent. I was sure I'd never smelled it before, no positive. It wasn't fresh, but not old either. Perhaps from very early in the morning or late at night. I was confused. It didn't make sense why a vampire would go in to Bella's house and leave Charlie alive unless they were looking for something. Or someone. My breathing stopped as I realized the only Vampire who had reason to find Bella but not kill her. The Volturi. I ran to the door and rang the bell.

"Door." Charlie called from inside.

"Don't strain yourself, Dad." Bella said as her footsteps approached the door. She pulled the door open and as soon as she saw the stress on my face her smile disappeared.

"Edward?" She asked shrilly, "What-"

"Give me two seconds." I said quietly. "Don't move." I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, following the scent into her room. It was everywhere in here, the bed, the desk, the chair, the hamper... They were looking for something. Evidence maybe? Proof that Bella was still human? Her scent was all they would need. I darted out of the room and back down the stairs.

I grabbed Bella by the waist and moved her towards the kitchen, unable to prevent myself from throwing searching glances over every inch of the rooms.

"Someone's been here." I said quietly when I'd pulled Bella to the back corner of the kitchen.

"I swear that no werewolves-" She began.

I shook my head, my voice was harder, more impatient than before. "Not one of them, one of us."

Her face morphed from confusion to fear. "Victoria?" she said horsely.

"It's not a scent I recognize."

"One of the Volturi." She whispered, no question in her tone.

"Probably." I admitted.

"When?" She asked with wide eyes.

"That's why I think it must have been them, it wasn't long ago, early this morning while Charlie was sleeping. And whoever it was didn't touch him, so there must have been another purpose."  
"Looking for me." She guessed.

I couldn't answer, half because of the panic on her face, half because I could hear Charlie walking down the hallway towards us.

"What are you two hissing about in here?" Charlie asked as he entered the kitchen carrying an empty bowl that smelled of popcorn.

My grasp tightened on Bella's arms as I felt her began to sway. Her skin became colder and perspiration began to bead from her pores. I didn't take my eyes off of her terrified face as she turned to Charlie.

_"Wait... why does she look like... are they. I think their fighting! Excellent."_

"If you two are having a fight... well, don't let me interrupt." he said brightly. I heard the bowl hit the table as he set it down and walked briskly from the room.

Bella turned back to me, the shock frozen on her face.

"Lets go." I said perhaps a little too coldly.

"But Charlie." She gasped with difficulty. Her breathing was harsh now. If the Volturi really had been here, I needed to get Bella away. It wouldn't take long after their messenger returned with the news that Bella had not been changed, and I needed as much of a head start as I could get.

I deliberated between forcing her from the room and ensuring Charlie's safety before her pleading eyes finally won me over.

I growled lowly as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I rang only once before Emmett answered.

"What's going on?" he asked. "Alice told us you were bringing Bella back to the house and..."

"Emmett!" I said to hush him, I spoke very quickly. I need you and Jasper to come to Bella's house and look after Charlie. There was an intruder during the night and I have no idea who it was, possibly the Volturi. When you get here, I need one of you to go out into the woods and follow the trail, figure out which way the went and how far they've actually gone. I need to know how much time I have, when you're sure it's safe, come home."

"Right." Emmett said, suddenly serious. "We're on our way."

I hung up the phone and grabbed Bella again, pulling her to the door. "Emmett and Jasper are on their way," I assured her. "They'll sweep the woods. Charlie is fine."

Her struggling stopped and she allowed me to push her through the door towards my car. "Where are we going?" she asked when I slid into the drivers seat and threw my foot on the gas.

The shock had disappeared now and had been replaced with rage. I was angry with myself for not having made sure her house was safe before I sent her home and angry with Alice for not having seen the Volturi come in the first place.

"We're going to talk to Alice." I said through clenched teeth.

"You think maybe she saw something?"

My eyes narrowed. "Maybe."

When we pulled in front of my house I could hear my family talking inside. Alice's thoughts shifted from visions of the present to brief flashes of Victoria or the Volturi.

I was at Bella's door before her seatbelt had rolled back to it's resting place. She grabbed my hand and followed me through the door.

"What happened?" I asked before the door had closed behind us. I dropped Bella's hand, my fists were curling with my fury. With murderous rage evident in my eyes, I advanced on Alice.

She stood with her arms folded over her chest, her face showed no fear under my gaze. "I have no idea. I didn't see anything."

"How is that _possible?_" I hissed.

"Edward..." Bella said disapprovingly behind me. I waved a hand behind me, unconcerned for the moment about Bella's approval.

"It's not an exact science, Edward." Carlisle said calmly, coming up on my right.

"He was in her room, Alice. He could have been their waiting for her." My jaw was tight and every part of me was shaking. My words were ice.

"I would of seen that." Alice said plainly.

I threw my hands up in frustration. "Really? You're sure."

That was it for Alice. Her face went hard and her words were venomous. "You've already got me watching the Volturi's decisions, watching for Victoria's return, watching Bella's every step. You want to add another? Do I just have to watch Carlie, or Bella's room, or the house, or the whole street, too? Edward, if I try to do too much, things are going ot start slipping through the cracks."

"It looks like they already are." I snapped back. Alice moved to only a few inches in front of me.

"She was never in any danger." She hissed. "There was nothing to see."

"If you're watching Italy, why didn't you see them send-"

"I don't think it was them." Alice insisted, taking a few steps back. "I would have seen that."

"Who else would leave Charlie alive?"

"I don't know." She said.

"Helpful."

"Stop it, Edward." Bella whimpered.

I turned to face her. I was still livid, every part of my body was tight and shaking with rage. My teeth clenched together as I tried to think of words kind enough to say to Bella. Before I could speak, I saw her face, really saw her face. I could see the fear, the shock, the emptiness. It was like a kick in the gut. I took a deep breath, and the anger was gone, leaving only desperation as I began to feel the distance between our bodies. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, sooth her until she didn't look this way. But what would I say? I needed to figure out what to do. Emmett and Jasper would be back soon and until then, my family and I could come up with a plan.

"You're right, Bella. I'm sorry." I turned back to Alice. "Forgive me, Alice. I shouldn't be taking this out on you. That was inexcusable."

"I understand." Alice said. "I'm not happy about it, either."

I took another deep breath. "Okay, let's look at this logically. What are the possibilities?" My family suddenly seemed to thaw from the tense stances they'd held since I walked in and paced the room. Alice sank back into the house, thinking through several situations while trying to see flashes of the Volturi.

I moved back to Bella and pulled her on the sofa next to Esme, who wrapped her arm around her. I sat on her other side and took one of her hands in both of mine, counting her heart beats.

"Victoria?" Carlisle asked.

I shook my head. "No. I didn't know the scent. He might have been from the Volturi, someone I've never met..."

Alice shook her head. "Aro hasn't asked anyone to look for her yet. I will see that. I'm waiting for it."

I shook my head as well. "You're waiting for an official command."

"You think someone's acting on their own?" She asked skeptically. "Why?"

"Caius's idea."

"Or Jane's... They both have the resources to send an unfamiliar face..." Alice added.

"And motivation." I scowled.

"It doesn't make sense, though." Esme said. "If whoever it was meant to wait for Bella, Alice would have seen that. He- or she- had no intention of hurting Bella. Or Charlie, for that matter."

Bella cringed next to me as Esme spoke of her father. Esme's face became full of concern and she squeezed her a little tighter.

"It's going to be fine, Bella." She murmured, soothing her hair.

"But what was the point then? Carlisle asked.

"Checking to see if I'm still human?" I suggested.

"Possible." Carlisle agreed.

As my family mused over the Volturi's reasoning for coming to Forks, I heard Emmett and Jasper burst through the trees outside. Rosalie, who hadn't moved away from the window since we'd come through the door, exhaled. My face fell. I could see in both their thoughts that they hadn't found anyone.

Emmett was the first through the kitchen door, but Jasper was right on his heels.

"Long gone, hours ago." Emmett said, echoing his thoughts. "The trail went East, then South, and disappeared on a side road. He had a car waiting."

"That's bad luck." I muttered. "if he'd gone wet.. well, it would be nice for those doges to make themselves useful."

I felt Bella wince next to me, but I wouldn't sooth her worries for Jacob Black. Esme, thought, was a different story. She rubbed Bella's shoulder.

Neither of us recognized him, but here.." Jasper held out a piece of broken fern for Carlisle. "Maybe you know the scent."

"No." Carlisle said. "Not familiar. No one I've ever met."

"Perhaps we're looking at this the wrong way." Esme suggested, though she faltered as six pairs of eyes looked at her incredulously. "I don't mean a coincidence that a stranger happened to pick Bella's house to visit at random. I mean that maybe someone was just curious. Our scent is all around her. Was he wondering what draws us there?"

"Why wouldn't he just come here then? If he was curious?" Emmett asked.

"You would." Esme said fondly. "The rest of us aren't always so direct. Our family is very large, he or she might be frightened. But Charlie wasn't harmed. This doesn't have to be an enemy."

There was silence for a few moments and Bella shuddered at my side, obviously still frightened.

Alice was the first to speak. "I don't think so. The timing of it was too perfect... The visitor was so careful to make no contact. Almost like he or she knew that I would see..."

"He could have other reasons for not making contact." Esme interrupted.

"Does it really matter who it was?" Bella asked. "Just the chance that someone was looking for me... isn't that reason enough? We shouldn't wait for graduation."

"No, Bella." I said sternly. "It's not that bad. If you're really in danger, we'll know."

"Think of Charlie." Carlisle reminded her. "Think of how it would hurt him if you disappeared."

"I am thinking of Charlie!" Bella exclaimed. "He's the on I'm worried about! What if my little guest had happened to be thirsty last night? As long as I'm around Charlie, he's a target, too. IF anything happened to him, it would be all my fault!"

"Hardly, Bella." Esme said soothingly. "And nothing will happen to Charlie. We're just going to have to be more careful."

"More careful?" She repeated disbelievingly.

"It's all going to be fine, Bella." Alice assured her. She looked at me and I squeezed her hand. She looked into the faces of each one of my family members and her face fell. She knew no one would give in.

When it was more or less decided that we weren't going to come up with a solution that night, I took Bella back to her house. The drive home was very quiet, I figured she was still upset that we hadn't all jumped on the opportunity to rob her of her human life. I wasn't in the mood to argue about it, so I didn't push the matter.

I stopped in front of her house but made no movement to get out of the car. "You won't be alone for a second." I promised. "Someone will always be there. Emmett, Alice, Jasper.."

"This is ridiculous." She sighed. "They'll get so bored, they'll have to kill me themselves, just for something to do."

I glared at her sourly. "Hilarious, Bella."

I darted out of the car to her door. She stared at the hand I offered her for a few seconds before finally rolling her eyes and taking it. I held her close to my side, trying to shield her from as much of the rain as possible. We stepped through the door to the sound of a basketball game in the living room.

"Bella?" Charlie called.

"And Edward." She replied.

"Great." He muttered under his breath. His chair creaked as he heaved himself out of it. He followed Bella and I into the kitchen and was amused at the tension between us, which he assumed was a result of the fight he'd mistaken our conversation for earlier.

When Bella put Charlie's dinner on the table I excused myself, to make a few laps around the house. I should've gone farther into the trees to make sure nothing or no one was close to the house, but I didn't want to be more than a few feet from her side until we'd figured out why Alice hadn't been able to see the intruder. What if she missed again.

When I found nothing new, I went into the house again. Charlie waiting until he heard the door closed behind me before he told Bella, in an unnaturally loud voice, about the call she'd missed while we were out.

"Jacob called again." He said, when I entered the kitchen.

Bella didn't look up from her plate when she spoke. "Is that a fact?"

"Don't be petty, Bella." Charlie said disapprovingly. "He sounded really low."

She looked up at her father. "Is Jacob paying you for all the PR or are you volunteering?" She snapped. I grinned slightly as I sat next to Bella at the table. Charlie grumbled into the rest of his dinner and did not speak again until his plate was clear.

When it was time for me to leave, I held Bella against me, running my fingers through her silky hair. I promised I'd be back as soon as possible and disappeared through the door. Emmett was running up the road just as I slid into my car. He nodded at me as I sped off into the dark, wet night.

I climbed through Bella's window only 13 minutes later. She was pulling a pair of pajamas out of her dresser when I closed the window behind me.

"Oh." She said when she noticed me. "Uh, give me a moment to change." She went into the bathroom. I heard the sink turn on and off and her hair brush hit the tile on the counter.

When she came back, she was wearing her favorite sweats and he hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail.

She laid next to me in the bed and nestled her cheek against my chest. I wrapped her in a blanket to keep her warm and in no time, she was asleep.

I watched the moon appear and disappear behind the clouds while Bella slept in my arms. She kicked the blankets off the bed and I reached down and re tucked them around her.

"Jacob." She said. "My Jacob."

I swallowed the venom that filled my mouth at those words. Wasn't it bad enough I had newborns in Seattle to worry about, and strange vampires coming through her house at all hours of the night. Did I really have to worry about Jacob Black too?

I pulled her tight against me and kissed the top of her head. She put an arm around my stone waist and I covered her exposed skin with the blanket.

"I love you." I whispered into the darkness.

"My Jacob." She replied.

She didn't open her eyes right away when she woke in the morning. She stretched her fingers out for my shirt.

"Edward?" She mumbled sleepily.

"I'm here, my love." I whispered back.

"Mmm." She smiled. She opened her eyes and I smiled back and reached down to kiss her.

"Good Morning." She said with a yawn.

"Good Morning." I replied. "How did you sleep?"

"Great." She replied. "You successfully kept the nightmares away." I thought of her words the night before and had to fight to put a smile on my face. I remembered the promise I made to her. I would accept her friendship with Jacob, no matter how much I hated him. I wouldn't tear her between us anymore.

Her stomach growled.

"Hungry?" I asked as she giggled.

"I guess so."

I scooped her out of bed and carried her to the kitchen. Charlie had left to go fishing with Deputy Mark around an hour and a half ago.

She poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat next to me at the table.

"I'm going to let Jacob off the hook." She said after she spooned the last of the corn flakes into her mouth.

"I knew you'd forgive him." I said smiling. "Holding grudges is not one of you many talents." She rolled her eyes but smiled at my reaction. I knew it was right to be pleasant towards Jacob from now on, I was the bigger man. Or at least, that's how I hoped she'd see it.

She picked up the phone and dialed Jacobs number. He answered after only two rings.

"Hello?" I heard him say on the other end. Damn, he was home.

"Jacob?" Bella asked, a little too enthusiastically for my liking.

"Bella!" He exclaimed. "Oh, Bella, I'm so sorry! I swear I didn't mean it. I was just being stupid. I was angry, but that's no excuse. It was the stupidest thing I've ever said in my life and I'm sorry. Don't be mad at me, please? Please. Lifetime of servitude up for grabs, all you have to do is forgive me."

"I'm not mad. You're forgiven." She said.

I smiled. Yeah, I'm that good.

"Thank you." He exhaled a sigh of relief. " I can't believe I was such a jerk."

"Don't worry about that, I'm used to it."

He laughed as she moved the receiver to her other ear.

"Come down to see me." he begged. "I want to make it up to you."

"How?" She frowned.

"Anything you want. Cliff diving." He said with a laugh.

I even managed to keep smiling after that.

"Oh, there's a brilliant idea."

"I'll keep you safe." Jacob promised. "No matter what you want to do." Her eyes flickered to me. I smiled back at her, showing no tension on my face at all. She bit her lip and spoke again.

"Not right now."

"He's not thrilled with me, is he?" Jacob asked.

"that's not he problem. There's... well, there's this other problem that's slightly more worrisome than a bratty teenage werewolf...." I didn't like the hint of a joke in her tone, but I kept my face pleasant.

Jacob didn't buy the joke either. "What's wrong?"

"Um..." her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to find the words but couldn't. I reached for the phone.

"Bella?" Jacob asked from the other side. I sighed and reached farther.

"Do you mind speaking to Edward?" She asked apprehensively. "He wants to talk to you."

He didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Okay." He finally agreed. "This should be interesting."

She handed my the phone tentatively. I didn't need to be able to read her mind to know what she was thinking.

"Hello, Jacob." I said politely.

"Hello."

"Someone was here." I continued. "Not a scent I know. Has your pack come across anything new?"

"No.. We haven't even had the red-headed leech for a few weeks. Not since your brother crossed the line."

I nodded, unwilling to take the bait and start a fight. "Here's the crux, Jacob. I won't be letting Bella out of my sight till I get this taken care of. It's nothing personal."

"Yeah, I'll bet. You know you're not the only one who cares about her. You're not the only one who can protect her." He said.

"You may be right..." I started.

"What if... What if we helped. We could be on patrol too. We might even be able to... negotiate some borders... maybe."

"That's an interesting suggestion. We're quite willing to renegotiate. If Sam is amenable."

"I'm not promising anything, but I'll give it a shot."

"Thank you." I replied.

"And while you're all out of town looking for the leech, she can come down to La Push."

"I planned to go alone actually, and leave her with the others." I said, surprised by his assumption.

"It might be a good idea. She'd be protected by my whole pack and you guys could cover a lot more ground if you all went. And it she'd be protected if she just came down for a visit every once in a while too..."

"I'll try to consider it objectively." I promised. "As objectively I as I am capable of." I amended.

"Good. Maybe I could come down and get the scent of the new bloodsucker... you know, so we know what we're on the lookout for."

"That's not a half-bad idea. When"

"Now? Is that too soon?"

"No that's fine. I'd like a chance to follow the trail personally, anyway."

"I'll be there in ten."

"Ten minutes. Certainly." I handed the phone to Bella, who didn't immediately reach out for it.

"Bella?" I asked. She shook her head slightly and slowly reached for the phone.

"What was that all about?" She asked.

"A truce. I think. Hey, do me a favor. Try to convince your bloodsucker that the safest place for you to be, especially when he leaves, is on the reservation. We're well able to handle anything."

"Is that what you were trying to sell him?"

"Yes. It makes sense. Charlie's probably better off here, too. As much as possible."

"Get Billion on it." She agreed quickly. "What else?"

"Just rearranging some boundaries, so we can catch anyone who gets too near Forks. I'm not sure if Sam will go for it, but until he comes around, I'll keep an eye on things."

"What do you mean by 'keep an eye on things'?" she asked.

"I mean that if you see a wolf running around your house, don't shoot at it." He joked.

Behind Bella's back I formed my thumb and index finger into the shape of a gun, closed my left eye as I aimed out the back window and mouthed, 'pow'.

She turned to me and I smiled at her. "Of course not. You really shouldn't do anything risky though."

Jacob snorted. "Don't be stupid. I can take care of myself."

She sighed.

"I also tried to convince him to let you visit. He's prejudiced, so don't let him give you any crap about safety. He knows as well as I do that you'd be safe here." I rolled my eyes.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"See you in a few." Jacob said.

"You're coming up?" She asked, looking at me questioningly. I nodded as Jacob spoke.

"Yeah. I'm going to get the scent of your visitor so we can track him if he comes back."

"Jake, I really don't like the idea of you tracking-"

"Oh please, Bella." He interrupted. I heard a laugh, followed by a dial tone.


	8. Chapter 7 Danger

Chapter 7

"You're being childish." Bella whined as I walked towards the front door. "I don't understand why you both can't just get along for 10 minutes while he gets the new scent."

I sighed as I organized the words in my head that wouldn't make her angry. I would've liked to say, "I think it's childish that HE can't just accept the fact that we're together but you don't get angry with him about it...ever."

Instead I settled for, "It's not that I feel any personal antagonism toward him, Bella, it's just easier for both of us." I swallowed as I tasted the lie on my tongue and fought to put a smile on my face. "I won't be far away. You'll be safe."

"I'm not worried about that." She replied firmly.

I smiled. I hated that she could trust the dog so entirely but her stubbornness was heartwarming. Hopefully that same stubbornness would be the reason I would win, and Jacob would lose.

As Jacob's footsteps on the road top approached, I wrapped Bella into me, burying my face into her hair and breathing her in. In only a few short minutes, her scent would be diluted with the wolf smell and I wanted to fill myself with her glorious perfume before I was engulfed by wet dog for the rest of the day.

_"Ugh, God. That bloodsucker is spending way too much time around here. It wreaks. Damn, she's probably going to smell too... oh gross there's his brother's scent too.." _

I smiled as I heard Jacob's thoughts approaching. Though my patience was holding out fairly well, I was still vindictive enough to breath over Bella's neck just to make sure she really did smell very strongly of me. I wouldn't want to disappoint him after all.

I pulled away and smiled again. "I'll be right back." I said with a laugh.

"What's so funny?" Bella demanded. I grinned and darted into the trees. Carlisle was only a mile out from Bella's house doing patrol so I ran to him. I found him seconds later, perched on a rock and staring intently into the trees.

"Anything?" I asked hopelessly.

"No." He replied. "I don't think he's going to return." I glowered and he quickly added. "Though, we aren't going to stop searching."

"Good." I said. "Jacob Black is with Bella right now, he's trying to pick up the new scent so his pack of mutts can be on the watch on the other side of the line."

I was grateful for Jacob's enthusiasm in protecting Bella, but it was impossible for me to keep the grumble out of my voice.

Carlisle sighed. "Edward, please don't be derogatory towards the wolves. They've done us a great service on more than one occasion."

I looked at him skeptically, but he stared back undeterred. "They broke their rules." He explained. "Went against their very nature to make peace with us and create an agreement so we could live together harmoniously. And don't forget their efforts with Bella. I think you underestimate the lengths they went through to keep Bella safe while you were...away. Victoria trying to find and hurt Bella, it isn't a new thing, Edward. It's only new to us because we weren't around when she first came."

I looked down at my feet. He was right. I hated it, but he was right. I really owed Bella's life to Jacob. Had Laurent not been able to find her in the Meadow when Jacob first saved her life, it wouldn't have been long before Victoria had tracked her. I doubt I would've been back by then.

I threw a rock deep into the trees as Carlisle began to survey our surroundings again. He stiffened as we heard the approach of a Vampire on our left but could not register a scent in the wind. I turned in the direction of the sound and concentrated on any thoughts coming in our direction.

_"This is so stupid. Why should I have to give up my afternoon because Edward over reacts about ever stupid detail."_

A second later, Rosalie burst through the trees, stopping only a few feet in front of us. She glared down at me.

"I don't take it back." She said.

"Fair enough." I replied. She glared at me one last time and turned softer eyes to Carlisle.  
"Esme and Alice are going hunting. You haven't been the longest out of all of us, you should go too."

Carlisle clapped his hands together and leaped off the rock. "What do you say, Edward. It's been just as long for me as it has for you. Care to join?"  
"No," I said. "Jacob should be done by now, I better head back."

"Rosalie can watch Bella for a few hours, Edward. Some fresh blood will do you good."

"I'll go out later tonight when Bella's asleep. Ask Emmett if he wants to go out with me tonight?" I asked.

Carlisle nodded and disappeared through the trees. Rosalie sighed and peered after him. I had to hand it to her, despite Bella probably being her least favorite person, she was committed to keeping her safe. There was no distraction in her mind as she gazed intently into the surrounding forest.

"Uh..." I said awkwardly. "Thanks, Rosalie. I mean, really, thank you. I appreciate you coming out here and I'll uh... make it up to you."

She glance back up at me, her mind trying to find some witty retort to my sudden courtesy but I'd caught her off guard. "You're..welcome, I guess." She stuttered. We stared at each other uncomfortably for a few moments before I darted back through the trees to Bella's house.

When I came up to the house, I could still hear Jacob inside so I decided to make a few slow laps around the house, trying and failing not to hear their conversation.

"Ugh." Jacob complained. "Your hair stinks worse than your room." I smiled as I thought of my last moment with Bella.

"Sorry." Bella apologized.

"One of the many hazards of socializing with Vampires." Jacob sneered. "It makes you smell bad. A minor hazard, comparatively."

"I only smell bad to you Jake." Bella insisted.

I kicked a few rocks off the walk way as the mail man pulled up to Bella's house. When he drove away, I took the letters from the mailbox and glanced down at my watch, peering impatiently through the windows.

"See you around, Bells." Jacob said finally.

"Are you leaving?" She complained.

"He's waiting for me to go. I can hear him outside."

"Oh."

I tried not to let the disappointment in her voice affect me, but it was impossible. I growled slightly as I waited for his stalling to end.

"I'll go out the back," he said. I breathed a sigh of relief and began to move up the front walk when his voice stopped me again.

"Hold up a sec- hey, do you think you can come to La Push tonight? We're having a bonfire party. Emily will be there, and you could meet Kim. And I know Quil wants to see you too. He's pretty peeved that you found out before he did."

I tapped my foot on the pavement.

"Yeah, Jake..." Bella began. "I don't know about that. See, it's a little tense right now.."

"C'mon! You think somebody's going to get past all six of us?"

I waited for her answer, praying for something along the lines of, 'it's not that Jacob, it's just that you disgust me and the thought of spending a night with you makes me want to vomit."

"I'll ask." She replied doubtfully.

I should have known better than to hope.

"Is he your warden, now, too? You know, I saw this story on the news last week about controlling, abusive teenage relationships and-"

I glared in the direction of the kitchen.

"Okay!" Bella said stopping him. "Time for the werewolf to get out!"

I smiled and briefly thought of dancing on the sidewalk in celebration of Bella rejecting Jacob. Fortunately, I hadn't lost grips with reality, or my mind, so I contained myself.

"Bye Bells. Be sure to ask permission." Jacob said.

I heard the back door open and moved up the walk. My hand twisted the knob just as the door in the kitchen closed.

I stepped in the room and was immediately assaulted by the smell of bleach. I wrinkled my nose but thought nothing of it. I could hear the washing machine running in the laundry room and knowing Bella she'd probably spilled the entire bottle trying to put laundry in the machine.

I was pleasantly surprised then when I rounded the corner and saw a knife on the counter covered in the most unappealing blood I'd ever smelled.

"Did you get in a fight?" I asked before she'd noticed me.

"Edward!" she said, flying across the room with open arms.

"Hi, there." I laughed as I pulled her into my chest. "Are you trying to distract me? It's working."

"No, I didn't fight with Jacob. Much. Why?" She replied.

"I was just wondering why you stabbed him. Not that I object." I added quickly.

She looked up at me confused so I gestured to the counter with my chin.

"Dang! I thought I got everything." She wiggled out of my hold and moved to the counter, dousing the bloody knife with bleach and throwing it into the dishwasher.

"I didn't stab him." She explained as she turned the knob to start the wash cycle. "He forgot he had a knife in his hand."

I laughed again. "That's not nearly as fun as the way I imagined it."

"Be nice."

I smiled and reached into my jacket where I had stowed the letters from the mailbox. "I got your mail."

"Anything good?" She asked.

"I think so."

Her eyebrows sunk into deep suspicion as I pulled out the glossy, thick envelope from Dartmouth.

I unfolded the envelop and placed it on the counter in front of her. She looked down at the return address and glared at me.

"Dartmouth? Is this a joke?"

"I'm sure it's an acceptance. It looks exactly like mine." I said with innocent excitement.

"Good grief, Edward. What did you do?"

"I sent your application, that's all?"

She glared again. "I may not be Dartmouth material, but I'm not stupid enough to believe that."

"Dartmouth seems to think you're Dartmouth material."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. After ten seconds of silence, she opened her eyes and pushed the envelope back towards me.

"That's very generous of them." She said with strained patience. "However, accepted or not, there is still the minor matter of tuition. I can't afford it, and I'm not letting you throw away enough money to buy yourself another sports car just so that I can pretend to go to Dartmouth next year."  
"I don't need another sports car." I said seriously. "And you don't have to pretend. One year of College wouldn't kill you. Maybe you'd even like it. Just think about it, Bella. Imagine how excited Charlie and Renee would be.."

She paused, looking at the letter, but shook her head. "Edward, I'm worried about living through graduation, let alone this summer and next fall."  
I wrapped my arms around her. "No one is going to hurt you. You have all the time in the world."

She sighed and looked me dead in the eye. "I'm mailing the contents of my bank account to Alaska tomorrow. It's all the alibi I need. It's far enough away that Charlie won't expect a visit until Christmas at the earliest. And I'm sure I'll think of some excuse by then." She laughed slightly, but without humor. "You know, this whole secrecy and deception thing is kind of a pain."

I looked at her with all the seriousness I could muster. "It gets easier. After a few decades, everyone you know is dead. Problem solved."

I meant it to come out hard. I wanted it to be harsh. I needed her to understand the consequences of this choice. But she flinched and I felt bad.

"I'm sorry, that was harsh."  
She stared down at the envelope. "But still true."

"If I get this resolved, whatever it is we're dealing with, will you _please_ consider waiting." I begged.

"Nope."

"Always so stubborn."

"Yep."  
We stared at each other for a moment, daring the other to back down when the washing machine was thrown off balance and stopped. She rolled her eyes and walked to the laundry room.

"Stupid piece of junk." She grumbled as she stomped across the kitchen. I heard her reposition the contents of the washer, turn the knob again and walk back to the kitchen.

"That reminds me." She said. "Could you ask Alice what she did with my stuff when she cleaned my room? I can't find it anywhere."

I stared at her, confused. "Alice cleaned your room?"

"Yeah, I guess that's what she was doing. When she came to get my pajamas and pillow and stuff to hold me hostage." She paused to glare at me. "She picked up everything that was lying around, my shirts, my socks and I don't know where she put them."

That didn't sound like Alice. If Alice had decided to clean up after Bella, she would've done the load of laundry and folded and put everything away. At the very least, she would've just thrown the clothes on the floor in the hamper...

I froze. The hamper.

"When did you notice your things were missing?" I asked panicked.

"When I got back from the fake slumber party. Why?"

I remembered briefly being in Bella's room. The scent had been at the hamper. And the bed. I knew Alice didn't take Bella's pillow, there were pillows on the bed in my room. The stranger who had been here that night had taken it and apparently, a good portion of Bella's laundry.

"I don't think Alice took anything. Not your clothes, or your pillow. The things that were taken, these were things you'd worn... and touched... and slept on?"

"Yes. What is it, Edward?" She demanded.

"Things with your scent." I said in a strained voice.

"Oh!" She gasped with realization. "My visitor."

"He was gathering traces... evidence. To prove that he'd found you?" I pondered aloud, more to myself than to Bella.

"Why?"

"I don't know. But, Bella, I swear I will find out. I will." I promised, grabbing her shoulders, firmly holding her gaze with my own.

"I know you will." She said, comforted. She rested her head against my chest. I placed my hand against her hair, running my fingers soothingly through the strands. We stood this way for a few moments, when my phone buzzed.

I reached into my pocket and pulled it out, glancing down at the number. "Just the person I need to talk to," I said when I recognized the caller as Carlisle. I flipped the phone open. "Carlisle, I-"

"I know this is an awful time," he interrupted. "But the newborn in Seattle is getting more and more out of control as the days go by. We need to do something. Emmett is going down to Seattle tonight to check out the situation. We've read the paper and watched the news all day but we can't find anything to suggest a pattern in his behavior. You're better at reading people, could you glance over the paper then call me back with anything you might have discovered about the newborn?"  
"I'll check it out." I promised. "Listen, the stranger that came into Bella's house... he took things. Several things from Bella's laundry and her pillow are missing, things with her scent all over them. Why would the Volturi take things from Bella's room? Do they need evidence that she's still human or do you think it's a scare tactic?"

"I don't know, Edward. It doesn't sound like Aro. All he needs is an informant who swears she's still human to prove to him that his suspicions are correct. He knows that if he took things from her room, he'd only be giving us a heads up to their arrival."

"But who else would have cause to take things from Bella? If it was just a random visitor, they'd have no reason..."

"I don't know. We'll just need keep a watch on things extra closely from now on, we'll all start round the clock shifts."

"Thanks." I replied.

"Look over that story and get back to me, Emmett is leaving tonight."

"Maybe, I'll go..." I looked down at Bella's confused eyes and quickly changed my mind. "Maybe not. Don't let Emmett go alone, you know how he gets. At least ask Alice to keep an eye on things. We'll figure this out later."

I didn't wait for his response, I shut the phone and looked down at Bella again. "Where's the paper?"

"Um, I'm not sure. Why?"

"I need to see something. Did Charlie already throw it out?"  
"Maybe..."

I ran to the trash can and dug through the top layers. When I found the newspaper, I ran back to the Bella, shaking away the remains of the oatmeal that Charlie had dumped on top of the pages.

I spread the wet pages out over the table scanning the headlines and certain stories for key passages.

"Carlisle's right... yes.. very sloppy. Young and crazed? Or a death wish?" As I scanned the headlines, it seemed impossible that a single newborn was causing this much trouble.

"It's getting worse." Bella muttered over me.

I frowned. "Altogether out of control. This can't be the work of just one newborn vampire. What's going on? It's as if they've never heard of the Volturi. Which is possible, I guess. No one has explained the rules to them... so who is creating them, then?"  
"The Volturi?" Bella suggested.

I shook my head. "This is exactly the kind of thing they routinely wipe out- immortals who threaten to expose us. They just cleaned up a mess like this a few years ago in Atlanta, and it hadn't gotten nearly this bad. They will intervene soon, very soon, unless we can find some way to calm the situation. I'd really rather they didn't come to Seattle just now. As long as they're this close... they might decide to check on you."

"What can we do?" Bella asked with a shutter.

"We need to know more before we can decide that. Perhaps if we can talk to these young ones, explain the rules, it can be resolved peacefully." I paused, frowning again. These newborns had been allowed to feed as they pleased for weeks, a peaceful outcome seemed unlikely.

"We'll wait until Alice has an idea of what's going on... we don't want to step in until it's absolutely necessary. After all, it's not our responsibility. But it's good we have Jasper. If we are dealing with newborns, he'll be helpful."

"Jasper?" She asked. "Why?"

"Jasper is sort of an expert on young vampires." I said with a dark smile.

"What do you mean expert?"

"You'll have to ask him, the story is involved."

"What a mess," She mumbled, leaning back from the table into her chair.

"It does feel that way, doesn't it." I admitted. "Like it's coming at us from all sides these days. Do you ever think that your life might be easier if you weren't in love with me?"

"Maybe." She admitted, and I cringed. "It wouldn't be much of a life though."

"For me." I amended. "And now I suppose you have something you want to ask me." I said wryly.

"I do?" She asked, confused.

"Or maybe not." I said with a hopeful grin. "I was rather under the impression that you'd promised to ask my permission to go to some kind of werewolf soirée tonight."

"Eavesdropping again?"

"Just a bit, at the end there."

"Well, I wasn't going to ask you anyway. I figured you had enough to stress about." My shoulders sunk slightly, I knew what I had to do.

I held her chin, so she couldn't shift her eyes away from me. I may not be able to read her mind, but Bella's eyes could never lie. "Would you like to go?" I asked

"It's no big thing. Don't worry about it."

Part of me want to say "Ok!" And be done with it, but I knew Bella well enough to know that this was in fact, a big deal.

"You don't have to ask my permission, Bella. I'm not your father- thank heaven for that. Perhaps you should ask Charlie though."

"But you know Charlie will say yes."

"I do have a bit more insight into his probable answer than most people would, it's true." She stared into my eyes skeptically for a moment, no doubt trying to find some hidden meaning behind my sudden acceptance of her going to La Push.

It wasn't that I was happy about her gallivanting down to the werewolves, but I had things I needed to attend to and Jacob was right. The odds of anything getting passed the entire pack to get to her, were slim to none.

"Bella," I said after I could tell she wasn't going to speak. "I told you that I was going to be reasonable and trust your judgment. I meant that. If you trust the werewolves, then I'm not going to worry about them."

"Wow." she said incredulously.

"And Jacob's right, about one thing anyway, a pack of werewolves ought to be enough to protect even you for one evening."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, only..." I did have the stipulations I'd decided on the night I'd come home from the hunting trip. "I hope you won't mind taking a few precautions? Allowing me to drive you to the boundary line, for one. And then taking a cell phone, so that I'll know when to pick you up?"

"That sounds... very reasonable." She said, impressed by my new found tolerance.

"Excellent." I smiled, and kissed her softly.

After Charlie had nearly crowed with excitement at Bella's trip to La Push, Bella was following me down the highway towards my house. She'd decided that she wanted to take her motorcycle back to La Push so she could ride with Jacob, and later give it to him to sell when she had been changed. I sunk slightly when she told me, half because it meant she'd be riding that death trap around La Push, and half because next to that motorcycle, there was a new silver Ducati I'd purchased in case she'd decided she wanted me to take her out for a ride.

We pulled up to the house, and Bella came to my side, staring at the new motorcycle in amazement. "What is that?" She asked.

"Nothing." I replied as casually as I could through my embarrassment.

"It doesn't look like nothing."

I sighed. "Well, I didn't know if you were ever going to forgive your friend, or he you, and I wondered if you would still want to ride your bike anyway. It sounded like it was something that you enjoyed. I thought I could go with you, if you wished."

Her eyes moved from me, back to my motorcycle. "I wouldn't be able to keep up with you." She said. Her voice was strained as if she was fighting back tears.

I placed my hand under her chin again, but this time she fought looking into my eyes. I ran my finger along her lips and nudged the corners up into a smile.

"I'd keep pace with you, Bella."

"That wouldn't be much fun for you."

"Of course it would, if we were together." I smiled. She bit her lip, shook her chin away from me and stared at the floor. After a long pause she glanced back up at me.

"Edward, if you thought I was going too fast or losing control of the bike or something, what would you do."

I imagined the scene in my head an immediately knew exactly what I would do, however I also knew that this question was bait and jumping off my bike, pulling her from the seat of her uncontrolled machine and absorbing the blow against the pavement, was not the answer she was looking for.

"This is something you do with Jacob. I see that now."

She saw the hurt from the rejection in my eyes and quickly began to back pedal. "It's just that, well, I don't slow him down so much, you know. I could try, I guess..." But her eyes shifted back to the Ducati and she stopped speaking.

"Don't worry about it." I said and laughed as I remembered Jasper's reaction when he came to tell me it had been delivered that morning. "I saw Jasper admiring it. Perhaps it's time he discovered a new way to travel." After all, Alice has her Porsche now."

"Edward, I-"  
I pressed my lips to hers to stop her from speaking. "I said not to worry. But would you do something for me?"

"Whatever you need!" She promised quickly.

I brushed my fingers over her cheek and moved to her motorcycle. I came back to her holding the sturdy leather jacket and fire red helmet I'd bought for the rides I'd planned for us to take together. If Bella had made one thing clear in her attempt to convince me not to go riding with her it was that in the case of a crash, Jacob would not be saving her. A helmet and riding jacket were the least I could do, a foam body suit might be next.

I flashed Bella the crooked smile that I knew she couldn't resist as I handed her the things in my arms. "Please?" I asked.

She took the helmet from my hands, the corners of her mouth curling down into a frown. "I'll look stupid."

"No, you'll look smart." I corrected. "Smart enough not to get yourself hurt." Before she could protest against the helmet again, I slung the jacket over my harm to hold her face between my hands. "There are things between my hands right now that I can't live without. You could take care of them."

"Okay, fine." She groaned. "What's the other thing?" I laughed at the suspicious tone in her voice and shook the jacket out in front of her.

"It's a riding jacket. I hear road rash is quite uncomfortable, not that I would know myself." I held the jacket out for her and she sighed, forcing the helmet over her hair and taking the jacket from me. Once her arms were through, I zipped her in and brushed my eyes over her. What I saw made me smile.

"Be honest, how hideous do I look?" She asked stretching her arms to loosen the leather around her and placing her hands on her hips. I stepped back to fully appreciate her more.

Though her hair was restrained under the helmet, it still fell gracefully over her shoulders. The jacket hugged her figure perfectly, tighter around her thin waist and then falling in pleated ruffles to the top of her jeans. The structure was perfect for her figure, courtesy of Alice's expertise in shopping, and gave Bella's look a sharper edge. Mixed with the musky scent of the leather and her own hypnotic perfume, she was dangerous, untamable and exciting.

"That bad, huh?" She asked when I hadn't immediately answered.

"No, no, Bella. Actually..." My mind was racing through several adjectives to accurately describe her but only one fit. "You look... sexy."

"Right." She laughed.

"Very sexy, really." I said again. Now that I said it out loud, it was all I could think about. I'd done everything in my power to suppress those specific urges around Bella, but the seed was planted and my mind was running over fantasies I'd never allowed myself to have before. It suddenly took all of my restraint not to whisk her up to the new bed in my room.

"You are just saying that so that I'll wear it." She said, bringing me back down to reality. "But that's okay. You're right, it's smarter."

I reached out for her and wrapped her into my chest. "You're silly. I suppose that's part of your charm. Though, I'll admit it, this helmet does have it's drawbacks." I pulled the helmet away and leaned down and kissed her.

After the bike and Bella's new riding gear were packed in the trunk of my Volvo, we were driving down the highway towards La Push. I was careful to keep an eye on the speedometer, never allowing the needle to go past 65, I was in no hurry to get where we were going.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Bella asked, interrupting several minutes of awkward silence. I looked over at her curiously. "It's just like when I was a kid and Renee would pass me off to Charlie for the summer. I feel like a seven-year-old again."

I laughed and reached down for her hand, squeezing it gently before turning my gaze back to the road.

All too soon, I turned the corner that signaled the approach of the boundary line. Jacob was already leaning against his Volkswagen Rabbit on the other side of the line. I stopped just over 30 yards away.

Bella waved to Jacob from the front seat of my car while I stared blankly ahead of me. It was going against every fiber of my being to let Bella out of the car, not only because I felt she would be in danger once she was away from me, but also because she was mine, and he was going to try to take her from me. I could hear in his thoughts how pleased he was that I would see him driving away with her and it infuriated me.

"call me whenever you're ready to come home." I said through gritted teeth. "And I'll be here." I wanted to drive that point in a little more, tell her that I'd be here the second she had any desire to maybe call it a night, that no matter what time, no matter what I was doing, no matter how many werewolves I had to kill to get there, I would be her the second she was ready to be away from Jacob. I wanted to tell her that, but I thought it may be a bit much. Instead I got out of the car to retrieve Bella's things from the trunk.

Bella followed me behind my Volvo, took her helmet in her arms and threw her jacket over the seat. "I won't be late." She promised.

"Do you have it all?" I asked blankly. I would've liked to show some kind of optimism in my tone, but I was fighting back angry shouts, so I settled for no emotion at all.

"No problem." She said, taking the handlebars. I sighed and leaned down to kiss her.

_"Ew gross."_ Jacob's thoughts came from behind us, _"It's bad enough I have to watch her pull up with him but do I have to witness the PDA too?"_

I smiled and instead of the soft peck I was planning on giving her, I pulled her in tight, mashing our lips together in a deep kiss, running my tongue along the soft lines of her lips.

By the time we pulled apart, Bella was gasping for air and Jacob was spewing a long string of profanities in his mind.

"Goodbye." I said in a satisfied tone. "I really do like the jacket." She smiled and turned away from me. I don't know if she noticed or not, but for a split second, I almost lost it. Watching her walking away from me, towards him, I had a sudden intense feeling of panic, anger and rejection all in one. I pushed it aside hoping Jacob didn't notice and watched her cross the line. She was now in a place where I couldn't go.

I slid into the drivers seat of my Volvo never taking my eyes off of her as she wheeled the bike towards Jacob. Once she was across the line, his hard face shifted to victorious joy and he bounded to her side.

He took the bike from her, leaning it against the kick stand and pulled Bella up off the ground into a hug. He spun her around once and then looked straight through my windshield, deliberately into my eyes.

_"You wanna compete with me for Bella's affections? Fine."_ He thought. _"But remember, I have nothing to lose._" His hand moved up to her hair as he held her head tenderly against his shoulders.

That was all I could take, I pulled the parking break, jerked my steering wheel around and punched the gas. My hand flew down to the stereo, cranking the volume up as high as it would go, to drown out the dog's thoughts.


	9. Chapter 8 Heathcliff

Chapter 8

"Ring." I commanded my phone, for probably the millionth time. Alice rolled her eyes at me as she tied a scarf in her spiky black hair.

"Edward, you've been home for five minutes, she's not going to call you." She said. I glowered at her.

"How do you know." I glowered. "You can't see past the dogs."

She glared at me and stuck her tongue out, the hole in Alice's vision caused by the unpredictability of the wolves was a sore spot with her, she wasn't used to being blind.

"Okay, are we ready?" Emmett asked excitedly.

I'd decided to use this time away from Bella to hunt with Emmett and subsequently, Alice, Jasper and Rosalie had decided to come as well.

"All set!" Alice chirped excitedly.

"Ring!" I demanded one last time. The phone suddenly flew out of my hands and into Emmett's pocket.

"Hey!" I exclaimed and dove after it, but his hand caught my wrist and suddenly I wasn't standing on ground anymore. The air was rushing past me in a dizzying haze until I was flat on my back. I stared up undeterred.

"Give it back." I ordered.

"You're not spending the entire trip staring at your phone... but you can try for it again if you'd like." Emmett smiled and took a defensive crouch. I glared.

"What if Bella calls?" I asked.

"If she calls, she calls. Then you can rush back here and pick her up or let the mutt drive her home. But we're going to have one trip where your mind is completely on the task at hand and not worrying whether or not Bella has fallen and scraped her knee or gotten a splinter or... was eaten by a wild raccoon or whatever it is you constantly worry about." Rosalie said sternly as she entered the room.

"It's not a raccoon I'm worried about, it's a werewolf." I grumbled.

"Or a vampire." Jasper added. I turned to glare at him too.

"I'm just saying, the stranger... Victoria... the Volturi.." Alice was at Jasper's side before he could finish, his words cut off very suddenly as Alice jabbed her elbow into his side.

"Sorry." He said shortly. I turned my eyes to Emmett's pocket.

"Ring." I commanded once more.

"Seven minutes, Edward. Give the girl some time." Alice said.

"Or better yet, let's get on the road!" Emmett called impatiently as he walked from Alice's bedroom.

I followed after him quickly, not because I was as excited as he was to be on our way, but because he had my phone.

After Esme and Carlisle had wished us a good trip, I was following Rosalie's golden hair through the trees. Though the majority of my thoughts were focused on Bella, the excitement of the run had begun to set in and I could feel the aching burn in my throat that I'd ignored for too long.  
I sprung into a tree and peered over the forest floor Alice followed after me and smiled, she was ready for a game.

She leaped to the next tree and quickly climbed down the bark. Before a second had passed she was already on the ground sprinting into the thick vegetation.

_"Catch me if you can." _she thought.

"Ready or not, here I come." I said under my breath and bounded after her. Unlike my brothers and sister, Alice was a formidable opponent for me in everything. I may have been able to read her thoughts, but in turn she could always see my next move. Her omniscience and her quick, dance like movements would've made her nearly impossible to catch, but I was fast. Really fast.

I'd nearly reached her when she planted her small foot on the trunk of a tree and back flipped around me. When I turned she was already grabbing a tree branch and launching herself into the needles, swinging through them so quickly by the time the needles had begun to move from her wind, she was already out of sight. I smiled and ran after her again.

I followed her scent for miles, only briefly catching her taunting grins as I made my way through the trees. Her thoughts were no help, she'd found her way around that. I would listen to her randomly think of different places she'd be hiding or running to and I actually fell for a few of them, until, after three miles of sprinting east, I realized I was running for the Eiffel Tower.

I heard her giggle as I stopped and spun back around towards her. Before long I found myself next to a waterfall, the tall trees of the deep forest completely surrounded the pool that had formed in the river below. It was quiet, eerily quiet. I turned to sprint in the other direction.

_"Uh uh uh._" her satisfied thoughts sounded in my mind. I spun around, staring diligently into the trees around me, her silent laughter sounded in my head. I growled slightly as I realized I had no trace of her scent and her thoughts gave me no clue as to where she was hiding.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are." I said quietly.

There was a quick movement and suddenly she was perched on my back with her small hands around my throat.

"Gotchya." She said in a happy, satisfied tone. I smiled and reached up to grab her but she laughed and I was suddenly flying through the air. I could hear Alice lightly hit the ground as I flew over her and directly into the cold pool beneath the waterfall.

The water was clean and crisp, though entirely unappealing and useless against the burn in my throat. I opened my eyes and stared though the clear water at the plants and terrain of the riverbed. It took me a few seconds before I decided to emerge and admit my defeat.

When I'd sufficiently swallowed my pride, I pushed hard off the river bottom and jettisoned myself through the surface of the water. Alice was standing on the river bank bowing to the applause of my brothers and sister who stood on top of the waterfall. I could hear their laughter as they stared down at me, completely soaked and standing knee deep at the edge of the pool. I glared up at Alice's smug grin and she saw my plans a second too late for her to move out of my reach.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her deep into the water, her scream of shock only slightly muffled by the river as she disappeared beneath the surface. A second later, she too emerged, soaked through and dripping. She stared down at her clothes and then glared up at me.

"This outfit is dry clean only." She said coldly. I smiled back. Before she had her chance to attack there were two more splashes as Jasper and Emmett dove from the top of the waterfall into the river. They emerged laughing and splashing each other and the anger from Alice's face disappeared as I ran at her, lifting her off her feet and taking her underwater with me.

We threw each other around in the water, Jasper and I both attempting to keep Emmett below the surface for as long as possible, which turned out to be only a matter of seconds. Alice and Jasper where playing their own game of chase in the river while Emmett and I began to wrestle. After Alice had caught Jasper and I'd pinned Emmett from behind, Rosalie coughed loudly to get our attention.

"Are we going to hunt, or are you just going to play around all day?" She asked, sounding like our mother rather than our sister.

"Come in Rose!" Emmett called.

Rosalie stared down at the water in disgust. "No thanks, I'd rather not get my hair wet."

The moment she said it, she knew it was a mistake, Emmett barreled out of the water to the left while Jasper and I flew at her from the right. Nimble Alice scaled the cliff side to catch her from the front.

"No!" She shouted. "No, no, no, no, no!" Rosalie sprinted away from the water, but I was faster and blocked her from behind. She stopped very suddenly and turned in a different direction but Emmett was there blocking her too. Panicked she whirled one last time only to find Jasper and finally Alice cutting off her only escape. She was surrounded.

"No!" She pleaded. "I don't want to get wet... Please!" She turned to face each of us in turn as we slowly crept in on her. I saw her eyes flicker to the trees above us, but I caught her mid jump and brought her back to the ground.

"Mind reader, remember?" I said tauntingly.

"Let go of me!" she demanded. Her voice was both furious and terrified as she felt both Emmett and Jasper's hands close around her.

"Stop. Stop. Stop!" She screamed as we carried her closer to the cliffs edge.

Emmett grinned down at her wickedly as he took her from me and Jasper, cradling her against his chest. He glanced at Alice and she winked back. And then he was over the edge. We all moved quickly to the cliff face to watch them break through the water, Rosalie's screams never stopped the entire way down.

It took them a long time to come back up. It was almost a full minute before Rosalie broke through the water, immediately followed by Emmett. We all stood with bated breath waiting for Rosalie's reaction. I listened to her mind run through both a string of curse words and plans to get Emmett back under the water. It was tense for only a few seconds and then Rosalie broke out into laughter and dove at Emmett, knocking him off his feet and back into the river.

We all laughed and dove in after them.

After we'd pulled ourselves from the river and wrung out as much of the water as possible from our clothes and hair, we were sprinting through the trees again. I picked my phone up off the rock Emmett had left in on and secretly checked it for Bella's missed call every 13 to 27 seconds.

Somewhere just north of the Oregon border we ran into several black bears and a few cougars. The hunt was quick and easy, Emmett didn't think a fight with a black bear was worth it and as he drained one of the larger ones, I heard his thoughts long for one of the larger grizzlies. I myself was disappointed in the cougar I'd taken down, but the blood was warm and wet and sufficiently quenched the burn in my throat.

"It could have been a deer." Alice said optimistically as she threw her own kill to the side. After our bodies were full with the blood of our prey, we climbed to the top of a rock face and looked out over the trees.

I reached down into my pocket and checked my phone again.

No missed calls.

It had been several hours now and I began to get worried. Was there a reason she wasn't calling? Was she hurt? Was she sick? Had she changed her mind and picked Jacob? My hand twitched as I moved to shove my phone back in my pocket and run towards the boarder line between Cullen territory and La Push but Alice stopped me.

"She's fine. She's having fun with a friend, nothing more." Rosalie leaned around Emmett to glare at me.

"One trip." She reminded me.

I sighed and put my phone back and rested my chin on my fists, counting the seconds as a way to pass time.

"Why don't we talk about wedding plans!" Alice suggested excitedly. She immediately had my attention and I turned to her.

"Have you seen her change her mind?" I asked enthusiastically.

"No..." She replied hesitantly. "But she will. I'm sure she will. She has to." Her eyes had turned away from me to look at nothing as she spoke, like she was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince me.

I sighed and turned away, going back to counting seconds.

"Come on, Edward." Alice continued to prod. "She'll change her mind. Now what kind of flowers do you think Bella would like better? Roses? Lillies? Orange blossoms maybe... I suppose it depends on the season."

As I listened to Alice's ramblings I began to picture it. Bella, behind her frail gossamer veil, standing beneath a waterfall of orchids that hung delicately from the arch that would be our alter. Her lips, soft and pink, mouthing the words, "I Do." I could see my hand pulling the veil from her face, taking her warm, rosy cheeks in my hand and pressing my own cold, hard lips to the frail, soft petals that were hers. That kiss would be the kiss that signified that she was mine. That no one could take her away from me. That she had chosen me, and only me... for eternity. Everyone would see that kiss, my family, her family, Jacob. And there would be no argument anymore. We'd be together, forever.

A smile came to my lips as I replayed my fantasy over and over again. Nothing brought me out of it. Not Alice's plans for a grand ceremony, not the sounds of Jasper and Emmett destroying the forest with their wrestling. I was completely lost in my dream.

Until the phone rang.

Everyone's heads turned to me as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. Bella's name flashed across the screen on the caller ID and I sighed with relief as I answered.

"Bella, my love. Thank god, I've miss..." I began.

"Oh, uh... hey." A very unwelcomed voice responded. My whole body froze to stone and it became very difficult to speak as my mind jumped to wild conclusions as to why it was Jacob calling and not Bella.

"What?" I responded coldly.

"Uh... sorry about being so late, I guess. I'm just about to take Bella up to my car, she fell asleep after the uh, you know, events of the night."

"Oh." I said in both surprise and relief. "I'll meet you at the line then. Thank you Jacob."

"Er... you're welcome. Give me a few minutes though. I'm going to try to move her without waking her."

"Absolutely. I'll be waiting." I hung up the phone without the niceties of a goodbye. My brothers and sisters had already begun to take off towards home before I'd closed the phone and I took off after them.

Despite having to get my car, I still arrived at the boundary before Jacob did, though only by minutes. The car pulled up to the side of the road and my blood began to boil with jealousy as I saw Bella, sleeping under Jacob's arm, through the windshield. She started awake as the engine cut off.

She looked around, confused by her surroundings and then sudden realization washed over her.

"Oh, crap!" She hissed. "How late is it? Dang it, where's that stupid phone?"

"Easy. It's not even midnight yet. And I already called him for you. Look- he's waiting there." He nodded towards my car.

"Midnight?" Bella repeated. She squinted through my headlights to find me. As she recognized the shape of my Volvo in the darkness, relief swept over her face and she moved quickly for the door handle.

I smiled at her excitement and my joy doubled as Jacob's thoughts showed he'd noticed her relief too.

"Here." Jacob said, handing her the cell phone. He was scrambling now to find any excuse for her to stay in the car.

"You called Edward for me?" She asked, surprised.

He smiled. "I figured if I played nice, I'd get more time with you." I rolled my eyes and tapped my fingers on my steering wheel.

"Thanks, Jake." Bella said, with a little too much sentimental gratitude in her tone for my liking. "Really, thank you. And thanks for inviting me tonight. That was... Wow. That was something else."

"And you didn't even stay up to watch me swallow a cow." He laughed. His head bowed for a minute and I glanced over at the clock in my dash, considering honking. After warring with my hatred of seeing her with him, and being considerate of her feelings, I decided honking would be rude, so I exited the car and began pacing back and forth on the line. After what seemed like an hour, he spoke again.

"No, I'm glad you liked it. It was... nice for me. Having you there." His thoughts brushed over Sam and Emily, imprinting. He wanted to imprint on Bella, and he was trying, but it wasn't happening. I growled slightly but at the same time sighed in relief. I knew enough of the packs mind to understand how imprinting worked, love at first sight. Jacob wouldn't imprint on Bella, but he may on someone else one day. It was involuntary. Even if Bella did choose Jacob, he may have to leave her one day. I'd wait forever for that day to come.

I shook my head as I realized I'd almost conceded to the dog. Bella would choose me, she had to choose me. I bounced slightly as my need for her to get out of the car, out of his car, and cross back into my territory rose.

"He's not patient, is he?" Jacob said, motioning to me in the darkness. I glanced up at Bella, but knew if she could see me at all, it would just be my dark figure walking back and forth across the line.

"Go ahead," Jacob continued. "But come back soon, okay?"

"Sure, Jake." She promised. My hands balled into fists as she opened the passenger door. I immediately stopped and toed the boundary line, waiting to wrap her safely in my arms.

"Sleep tight, Bells. Don't worry about anything, I'll be watching out for you tonight." I snorted quietly. We didn't need Jacob, or his pack of guard dogs. Esme was on duty tonight, and Jasper would take over first thing in the morning. Besides, I planned to be by Bella's side all night.

"No, Jake." Bella protested, and my head shot up at her rejection. "Get some rest, I'll be fine." I rolled my eyes and stared back at the imaginary line. Of course she was only worried about his health.

"Sure, sure." Jake said, passing her concern off.

"Night, Jake. Thanks." Bella called over her shoulder, waving at him through the darkness.

"Night, Bella.." He whispered. Her door closed and she began walking toward me. The second she crossed the boundary line, she was in my arms.

"Bella." I sighed in relief, holding her tightly to me.

"Hi. Sorry I'm so late. I fell asleep and-." I pressed a finger to her lips.

"I know. Jacob explained. Are you tired? I could carry you." I offered as she staggered at my side.

"I'm fine."

I smiled at her stubbornness. "Let's get you home and in bed. Did you have a nice time?"

"Yeah- it was amazing, Edward. I wish you could have come. I can't even explain it. Jake's dad told us all the old legends and it was like... like magic."

I kept all the resentment out of my voice as I spoke. They're legends were like magic, ours were like horror stories.

"You'll have to tell me about it. After you've slept."

"I won't get it right." She yawned.

I chuckled slightly as her lips mashed together in a sleepy pout. We walked around the car and I opened her door for her, lifting her into her seat and bucking her into the heated leather.

She waved as Jacob's headlights washed light across my car and disappeared, and then she succumbed to sleep.

Bella was hanging out of her window waiting for me after I'd dropped off my car that night. I slid easily through the window next to her and once again wrapped her close to me. Being away from her was like holding my breath, and now that I had her next to me again, I needed to take as many deep breaths as possible to return to normal again.

"Is Jacob out there?" She asked, shivering in my wintery arms.

"Yes... somewhere." I replied. I frowned and released her. "And Esme's on her way." I added.

I took a blanket from the bed to wrap around her before she nestled herself in next to me. As she greedily hugged the blanket around her for warmth, I wondered if she wished it were Jacob sleeping next to her that night, instead of me. Suddenly, it took all of my strength to keep from trembling. Whether from anger or sorrow, I didn't know.

As she tried to control her shivering she looked up at me, her eyes full of guilt. "It's so cold and wet. This is silly."

"It's only cold to you, Bella." I chuckled reassuringly. I kissed her on the head and she nestled her cheek against my chest and slowly fell asleep.

As I held her next to me for the next few hours, my mind raced through images of her and Jacob. They were all tinted green with my envy as I realized he may have more of a fighting chance of winning her over than I'd supposed. He was getting smarter, playing the good guy instead of the villain. Bella's greatest weakness was her fear of hurting those she loved. The nicer Jacob was, the more she'd forget her anger and remember her love for him. The more she'd resist me, her choice to change. The more she'd want him.

He knew this.

He was using it.

Desperate for a distraction from my jealous thoughts of Jacob, I searched for something within arms reach to distract me. The only thing close enough for me to reach without letting go of Bella was her old copy of _Wuthering Heights_ on the bed stand. I sighed, reached for it, and began reading.

I'd read the novel before, and as my vampire mind retained everything in perfect detail, I almost had all of it's pages memorized. I hadn't cared for the novel before, but in my current state of mind, the human emotions were beginning to make sense to me. Their jealousy tearing them apart, it was my new reality.

I made it half way through the book before Bella started awake and I let it fall to the floor.

"Did I wake you?" I asked, tightening my hold around her.

"No." She mumbled. "I had a bad dream."

"Do you want to tell me about it?" I asked.

She shook her head and moaned. "Too tired. Maybe in the morning, if I remember."

My body shook a little as I held in my laughter. "In the morning." I agreed.

"What were you reading?" She asked as she settled back in to sleep some more.

"_Wuthering Heights_" I replied. She frowned.

"I thought you didn't like that book."

"You left it out." I said softly, trying to lull her back into more peaceful dreams. "Besides... the more time I spend with you, the more human emotions seem comprehensible to me. I'm discovering that I can sympathize with Heathcliff in ways I didn't think possible before."

"Mmm." She sighed, too tired to speak anymore.

Bella didn't remember her dream the next morning, she said that she could only remember being cold and glad I was there when she woke up. I smiled and kissed her deeply, holding her cheeks in my palms.

"I'll be back." I promised, as I climbed out the window. I ran as quickly as I could home, thankful Alice was already in the passengers seat when I arrived.

"Ready?" She asked excitedly.

"No, Alice." I said flatly.

"What?" She asked, concern coloring her face. "Did something happen with Bella last night. I didn't see anythi..."  
"We're not having another party." I interrupted.

The worry disappeared and was quickly replaced by defiance. "With all of this stress in her life, she needs a chance to relax, forget about her troubles and have fun with her friends. Besides, it's graduation. It would help the charade if we had some form of celebration to commemorate it. After all, this is the first time we graduated high school."

I glared at her.

"Bella will not want another party. Especially after what happened last time."

"No presents." She said firmly. "Problem solved."

"Alice..."

"Just let me talk to her first. If she says no, she says no."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, if she says no twice... three times then no party. We're going to be late." She said quickly so I couldn't reply. I sighed and put the car in reverse. As I rounded the corner of the garage and moved to put the car in drive, Alice put her hand on mine.

"Don't say anything to her about it. I feel it will go better if you let me tell her first." she pleaded.

"You mean it will go better if you trap her into it at lunch in front of Jessica, Angela, Mike and Ben?"

"Exactly."


End file.
